Fed Cup Draw Held
Easy passage for big guns
Big-spenders Sheikh Russel KC have been placed in Group A along with ten-time champions Mohammedan SC as the draw of the 24th Federation Cup was held yesterday at the Bangladesh Football Federation.
Holders Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club, runners-up Team BJMC and title contenders Abahani have avoided each other in the group phase clashes as they were placed in different groups on the basis of the standings of the fifth edition of the professional football league instead of last season’s Federation Cup standings.
The tournament will kick off with the match between Mohammedan and Rampur Boys Club of Feni followed by Sheikh Russel versus Bangladesh Police at the Bangabandhu National Stadium on October 5. The third match of the day will be held at the Birshreshtha Shaheed Mostafa Kamal Stadium where Team BJMC will take on Khulna Abahani.
Sixteen teams — ten from the Bangladesh Premier League and six teams from the qualifying round of Federation Shield — have been split into four groups and top two teams from each group will advance to the quarterfinals which means that the an early elimination for one of the favourites is highly unlikely.
Considering the groupings, the two perennial foes Abahani and Mohammedan have no chance of facing each other before the final of the season’s curtain-raising tournament.
For the first the qualifying round of the Federation Cup was held outside Dhaka in an effort to encourage the minnows to compete against the top-tier clubs. However, the qualifiers will be facing discrimination in terms of fielding foreign footballers as only ten clubs of the professional football league are eligible to field four foreign players in each match while the qualifiers will have to bank on the local players.
“The qualifying teams have not been allowed to field foreign players because they generally are not allowed to play foreign players whichever level they play,” explained BFF’s senior vice president Abdus Salam Murshedy adding that they were hoping to find some quality players from those clubs coming through the qualifying round.
The fact is the football’s governing body did not respond to the demand by local players of reducing the number of foreign players in the professional football league while not allowing foreigners in the lower league teams, thus an inequality amongst the participating teams of the Federation Cup.
BFF vice presidents Badal Roy, Tabith M Awal, league committee vice president Abdur Rahim and Grameenphone’s head of corporate communications Tahmid Azizul Haque were among others present on the occasion.
Group A : Mohammedan, Sheikh Russel KC, Bangladesh Police and Rampur Boys Club, Feni.
Group B : Muktijoddha Sangsad KC, Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club, Cox City FC and Noakhali FA.
Group C : Abahani, Brothers Union, Rahmatganj MFS and Jessore DFA Eleven.
Group D : Team BJMC, Arambagh KS, Feni Soccer Club and Khulna Abahani.
-With The Daily Star input
