Kings to appeal to FIFA, CAS

Defending Champions of the Bangladesh Premier League football, Bashundhara Kings, are set to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport regarding issues of the ongoing league that violates the regulations of AFC and FIFA.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport, an international body established in 1984, settles disputes regarding sports through arbitration. The headquarters of CAS is in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Kings started their title defence with a shock defeat against Swadhinata KS as they were beaten 2-1 on Thursday. The match was played at the Shahid Ahsan Ullah Master Stadium in Tongi, Gazipur, instead of Kings’ home venue Bashundhara Kings arena as the Bangladesh Football Federation refused to let them use it as their home ground. Later, BFF scrapped the stadiumas a league venue altogether.

After the match, Kings were furious with the standard of the stadium in Tongi and that they were denied the opportunity to play at their home ground.

“We will complain to FIFA. We had our home ground prepared, but we were stripped off it and were forced to play on a ground of sub-standard quality,” a Kings official, seeking anonymity, said after the match.

On Saturday, it was known that Kings would appeal to CAS regarding issues that violate the regulations set by AFC and FIFA.

“We will file an appeal to CAS regarding all the issues in the ongoing season which are not following FIFA or AFC regulations,” a Kings official said.

According to sources, Kings are currently preparing to file their appeal and are working on the documents.

Earlier this year, Kings were banned from the Federation Cup for a year by BFF after they refused to play on the Shaheed Sipahi Mostofa Kamal Stadium in Dhaka, the venue of the Federation Cup, alongside two other teams. Kings had also accused BFF of favouring a certain side.