MD ANWAR ULLAH, DHAKA: The most coveted Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) football of 2020-2021 season is likely to get underway in December and the announcement will come by September 15, sources in Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF), league committee and clubs said.
However, it is not yet certain whether foreign booters will play the league this season as the clubs are divided over the issue mainly because of financial constraints in this Covid-19 pandemic, they added.
“It is all but certain that the league is going to kick off in December but we are still in dilemma over playing foreign players … we will settle all the issues by September 15 through meetings among BFF, league committee and the clubs,” an influential member of BFF executive committee and of a big club told The Independent on Thursday.
All sports activities including the BPL have remained suspended across the country since mid March due to worldwide coronavirus pandemic.
The pandemic forced the BFF to call off the league at the halfway of the first leg and the sports ministry to put on hold all kinds of sporting activities in the country.
After that 12 Premier League clubs, excepting champions Bashundhara Kings, released their players and most of their foreign booters left the country.
As the coronavirus situation is improving gradually, the authorities concerned are planning to start the next season by strictly following the health regulations, the sources said.
The BFF, its league committee and the clubs, in several meetings held so far, have already decided not to relegate any team this time while issues like exact date of starting the next league and inclusion of foreign booters in it will be settled in further meetings by September 15, they said.
“Until now, our foremost priority is to kick off the league in December and to resolve the discord between clubs over foreign players,” the BFF executive member said, adding “Most of the clubs want the upcoming league without foreign booters but the remaining clubs want their inclusion.”
“The reality right at this moment is that most of the clubs are in severe financial constraints and they don’t have the ability to hire foreign players and bear other expenses such as travel cost which has gone up significantly due to coronavirus,” he said.
Travel restriction in many countries is also another problem in hiring foreign players, he added.
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