Arambagh Krira Sangha, relegated from the sixth edition of the Bangladesh Premier League, can get a lifeline to stay at the top flight as the Bangladesh Football Federation is planning to increase the number of participating clubs in the country’s top professional league.
After going down in the recently concluded BPL, Arambagh applied to the BFF to consider their relegation as six other professional clubs also requested the governing body not to relegate Arambagh.
The professional league committee of the BFF will discuss the matter today after receiving a letter from different clubs.
Nine teams took part in the last edition of the BPL which meant each club played a total of 16 matches throughout the campaign based on the home-and-away rule.
The Asian Football Confederation, however, prescribed the BFF to raise the number of matches of each club.
Keeping the AFC’s suggestion in mind, the professional league committee is mulling about giving the clubs at least 40 matches in a season.
‘We want to increase the number of clubs in line with the AFC’s guideline. Every professional team might play at least 35 to 40 matches in a season, we are working on that,’ said Abdus Salam Murshedi, chairman of the professional league committee.
‘We received a letter from the clubs requesting us not to relegate Arambagh. Personally I don’t like to keep a relegated team in the BPL. But the final decision will be made after discussing with the club officials,’ he added.
It was learnt that in order to increase the number of clubs from 10 to 12 the BFF is also planning to promote three top clubs from the Bangladesh Championship League to the top flight instead of two.
Chittagong Abahani and Uttar Baridhara have already confirmed their promotion to the BPL as champions and runners-up respectively.
Rahmatganj MFS are also hopeful about returning to the BPL as they finished their campaign with a 1-1 draw against Farashganj and ended their campaign in third position in the BCL points table.
Meanwhile, the professional league committee today will also select the two teams who will take part in the upcoming Kings Cup which is scheduled to get under way from the last week of July in Bhutan.
The committee is also expected to declare next season’s football calendar after the meeting.
-With New Age input
