Bangladesh Football Federation finally signed a contract with the Celebrity Management Group (CMG) on Saturday which confirms Bangladesh as the hosts of Argentina’s friendly match against Nigeria scheduled for September 6.
CMG, an Indian event management group, is the rights holder of the two matches Argentina will play on September 2 and 6 against Venezuela and Nigeria respectively and they handed over the rights of the second match to the BFF with the day’s contract.
The BFF had to splash out a big amount of cash for hosting the game and though the federation officials did not reveal the exact amount of money they paid to CMG, it will be not less than Tk 30 crore. Bhashwar Goswami, the executive director of CMG, and BFF president Kazi Salahuddin signed the agreement for their respective organisations at a programme at the BFF Bhaban.
Beximco Group, as the main sponsor of this big event, will bear all the expenses including the match-right price. The BFF has also signed a deal with Beximco in this respect where Shayan F Rahman, director of the corporate house, was present.
Beximco also will pay for all promotional activities but the profit (if any) from the match will go to the BFF’s fund which will be used for the development of youth football.
Salahuddin assured the media of participation of the big stars like Lionel Messi, Carlos Tevez, Angel de Maria of Argentina and Nigeria’s John Obi Mikel saying that it has been included in the agreement.
The BFF president thinks this big match occasion will make the young generation interested in the game.
‘I wanted to organise the game at any cost because it will inspire our future footballers. It is not a wild dream but we also have the ability to be a Messi or Tevez,’ he said.
Beximco director Shayan termed the match as a milestone of the nation’s football and expressed his delight to be a part of it.
‘This is a turning point of the nation’s football and we are very happy to be a part of that. It is duty of all corporate houses to guide the youth in the right direction,’ he said.
Salahuddin assured the fans of a fair ticket distribution process though the ticket prices have yet to be decided.
‘The tickets for the match will be sold in a clean process like it is done in Spain or England and we will fix the prices when we will be sure about the total budget of the match,’ he said.
Courtesy of New Age
