Bangladesh Championship League begins today

The Premier Bank 2nd Bangladesh Championship League, the second tier of professional football competition, begins today at the Bangabandhu National Stadium.
Eight teams will compete for two places in the Bangladesh Premier League with Farashganj SC facing Chittagong Abahani in the opening match.
Apart from Farashganj and Chittagong Abahani, two other former Bangladesh Premier League outfits – Rahmatganj MFS and Dhaka United (formerly Beanibazar SC) – will be eying a promotion to the top flight through the championship.
They will face some challenges from Victoria SC, Wari Club, Uttar Baridhara Club and Agrani Bank SC, the four other sides, who also have reportedly formed decent squads.
Bangladesh Football Federation’s senior vice-president Abdus Salam Murshedi hoped it would be a tough league as teams have scouted talents from different domestic competitions to pursue their promotion to the top-flight.
‘Last season the clubs suffered from lack of players but this time they somehow resolved the crisis,’ he said at a press conference.
‘They have found a lot of players from the Senior Division League, Pioneer League and BFF Development
programme and we hope the league will be very competitive.’
All but Chittagong Abahani have chosen Birsreshtha Shaheed Mostafa Kamal Stadium at Kamalapur as their home venue for the league, which will be played on home and away basis.
While top two finishers of the league will be promoted to the Bangladesh Premier League, one team will be relegated to their respective local league, for instance Dhaka Senior Division or Chittagong Senior Division leagues.
Premier Bank will give Tk 20 lakh for the tournament and the entire amount will be equally distributed among the participating teams.
‘We feel privileged to be involved with Bangladesh Championship League for the second successive year and we hope to continue it in future,’ said the bank’s managing director, Majidur Rahman.
According to the BFF calendar, the Bangladesh Championship League was supposed to be completed by February 25 after starting it in November last year, but the BFF deferred the league numerous times citing different causes.