Four districts lose voting rights ahead of BFF elections

The Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) elections are set to take place on 26 october.

The deadline for submitting the names of councillors eligible to vote in the election was Monday, with a total of 137 applications submitted by the cutoff. A hearing was held today at the BFF headquarters concerning four of these applications. Starting at 10:30 AM, the hearing continued for 10 hours, and by the end of the session, the football associations from four districts—Feni, Gopalganj, Lalmonirhat, and Sherpur—were disqualified from voting.

Previously, applications from Jessore and Satkhira were rejected due to pending legal cases. Following the disqualification of these additional districts, the total number of valid councillors for this election now stands at 133.

Mohammad Zakaria, a retired senior official of the Bangladesh Election Commission, led the review committee investigating the complaints surrounding councillorship in the BFF elections. He was supported by two other former Election Commission officials. After assessing the complaints, the committee ruled that the football associations from Feni, Gopalganj, Sherpur, and Lalmonirhat would lose their voting rights.

The final voter list will be confirmed tomorrow (thursday) during a meeting of the BFF Executive Committee. Speaking about the review process, Mohammad Zakaria said, "We reviewed the constitution, signatures, and national identification cards. We also heard arguments from both parties before reaching a decision."

In addition, there were complaints regarding the councillorship of FC Uttarbongo, Siddik Bazar, and Kurigram District Football Association, but the review committee upheld the validity of the names submitted by these organisations.

Of the 137 councillor applications submitted, objections were raised against 17. The BFF accepted five of these objections, with one later being withdrawn. As a result, four objections were heard during the lengthy hearing process.

The 133 councillors now eligible to vote represent a broad range of football associations: 8 divisional associations, 62 district associations, 10 clubs from the Premier League, 5 from the Bangladesh Championship League, 18 from the First Division, 8 each from the Second and Third Divisions, 4 top clubs from the Women's League, 6 universities, and 5 education boards. Additionally, there is one vote each from the referees' and coaches' associations, and from the women's sports organisation.

Among the 10 Premier League clubs, the nominated councillors include: Kazi Inam Ahmed (Dhaka Abahani), Golam Mohammad Alamgir (Mohammedan), Tariqul Islam Chowdhury (Bashundhara Kings), Sabbir Ahmed Arif (Brothers), Shaheen Ahmed (Fortis FC), Sheikh Mohammad Rezaul Haider (Bangladesh Police), Torafdar Ruhul Amin (Chattogram Abahani), Mahbubur Rahman Shaheen (Dhaka Wanderers), Mostafizur Rahman Mainu (Youngmen's Club Fakirerpool), and Shahidul Islam (Rahmatganj MFS).

The current president of BFF, Kazi Salahuddin, has announced that he will not be standing for re-election. Torafdar Ruhul Amin and former vice-president Tabith Awal have already declared their candidacy for the president's position. Although Torafdar's name has been submitted as a councillor from Chattogram Abahani, Tabith has not applied for councillorship. However, there is no requirement to be a councillor to run for the position of president in the election.