My office has done wrong: Salahuddin

Bangladesh Football Federation on Monday announced that they launched an investigation probe into the case of Abu Nayem Shohag, the former BFF general secretary who was banned by FIFA for violation of multiple articles of their Code of Ethics, and informed that he would never be reinstated in any position at BFF.

BFF also appointed Imran Hossain Tushar, who previously worked as the Chief Protocol Manager of the organisation, as the acting General Secretary for at least three months.

However, despite their upcoming investigation, the highlight of the press conference on Monday was the constant denial of corruption from BFF President Kazi Salahuddin and Senior Vice-President Abdus Salam Murshedy, with the latter taking the lead role in speaking throughout the briefing at the BFF offices.

FIFA, on Friday, banned Shohag for two years after he had breached three articles of the FIFA Code of Ethics – articles 13 (General duties), 15 (Duty of loyalty) and 24 (Forgery and falsification).

BFF hierarchy held an emergency meeting on Monday afternoon to make their call, where they made the decision of launching an investigation into the matter with a newly-formed seven-member committee, which includes all four BFF vice-presidents – Kazi Nabil Ahmed, Imrul Hasan, Ataur Rahman Bhuiyan, and Mohiuddin Ahmed Mohi. There are also three other members on that committee – Zakir Hossain Chowdhury, Satyajit Das Rupu, and Md. Elias Hossain. This committee will work alongside the existing audit committee to provide a report within 30 days.

“We have formed a seven-member committee to investigate the issue, alongside our existing audit committee. Within 30 days, they will give a complete report on what happened and why it happened,” Salahuddin said.

The top brass of the BFF, though, refused to take up any blame for their former general secretary’s work that led to the ban.

“If there has been a forgery, he (Shohag) has done it personally. He said that he has sent money someplace, but that is his personal fault. But there is no fault of the finance committee. He has been banned because he did not follow the procedure,” Murshedy, who is also the head of the BFF financial committee, said.

The former footballer added, “We will not take any blame. Because there is no blame on the financial committee of the BFF. Because he has not complied with the proper procedure. The general secretary is the highest organisational post. He did not use his power properly, and thus he will not be reinstated ever again.”

Murshedy continued on his claims of corruption being non-existent in the whole fiasco, which happened due to the misappropriation of FIFA forward funds.

“There have been no allegations of corruption. It’s a very specific case. It’s about compliance. He did not follow the proper procedure while purchasing. The purchasing did not happen properly, and thus there was an investigation. Several teams from FIFA and AFC came here repeatedly and checked on the details of the sellers, which did not satisfy them, resulting in the ban. But there has been no corruption there,” he said.

Although Salahuddin, who played second fiddle as the media briefing went along after initiating it, accepted that the fault happened at his office, in the end, kept the blame only on the banned general secretary.

“My office has done wrong, which has been proven. That is the blame. I cannot see it as a clerk. FIFA has banned him for the misappropriation of their power. That is theirs. There is nothing for me or you to take the blame,” he said.

Salahuddin and Murshedy, who have been at the top of the ladder at BFF for more than a decade, were asked whether they would resign after such an incident, a question both of them avoided by answering otherwise, including the use of ‘all of us in this room love football’.

They were also asked why they did not take any steps regarding Shohag in the long period, which is over two years, for which FIFA was conducting the investigation, to which Murshedy replied, “When the investigation is ongoing, you cannot fire or hire anyone. It could have been such that FIFA did not punish him. That is why we waited till today until the proof came in.”