The Bangladesh Football Federation plans to keep its domestic football schedule unchanged, with the Bangladesh Football League set to start on September 18 and the Federation Cup on September 22, despite objections from several clubs and concerns over national team commitments.
BFF Professional League Committee chairman Imrul Hassan confirmed the decision after Saturday’s committee meeting. Several clubs, led by Mohammedan SC, wrote to the federation three days earlier to object to the proposed start of the domestic season and demand a restructured league committee.
The clubs argued that national team commitments would prevent them from fielding full-strength sides.
Imrul said the clubs had submitted their demands directly to BFF president Tabith Awal.
“Actually, the clubs sent their letter to our president. We have prepared our observations from the league committee, and perhaps we will sit with the president tomorrow.”
Bangladesh will travel to Indonesia on September 19 for the ASEAN Cup, while the FIFA window begins on September 20. Mohammedan have nine players in the national team, while Bashundhara Kings, Dhaka Abahani and Fortis FC also have several players involved.
The league committee has also planned to stage two league rounds during the Asian Cup.
Imrul acknowledged that Bangladesh football had not previously followed such a schedule but insisted the committee wanted to get the league underway.
“It has never happened before, but we have taken this decision in the interest of starting the league. Just because it has never happened before does not mean it can never happen.”
He said the current situation differed from previous seasons because the national team camp had started long before the domestic league.
“When the league is already running, we stop it during the FIFA window. I think the situation is different here because the league has not even started this time, while the national team camp began a long time ago.”
The Federation Cup will also bring domestic football back to Dhaka National Stadium for the first time in five years. The last domestic matches there took place in August 2021 before lengthy renovation work began.
The National Stadium will host seven group-stage matches, and the BFF hopes to stage the four knockout matches there if the national team’s commitments allow.
“As we will hold some Federation Cup group-stage matches at the National Stadium, if there is no national team commitment, we will try to hold every match at the National Stadium.”
All 13 Bangladesh Football League clubs will take part in the Federation Cup, with Manikganj, Munshiganj and Gopalganj also hosting matches. The group stage will run from September 22 to January 12, 2027.
