The Bangladesh Football Federation on Monday announced to introduce the cash prize money and trophy made of pure gold for the winners of the Bangabandhu Gold Cup.
BFF general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag told reporters that the champions of the ongoing fourth edition will receive a cash prize of $50,000 while the runners-up will be awarded with $25,000.
The champions will only take a replica of the trophy while the original trophy, which is being prepared with 22 bhori gold, will stay with the game’s governing body.
In the previous three editions, the champions and runners-up teams had only received regular trophies and participation money as there was no cash prize money.
Shohag said the BFF was planning to give prize money from the beginning of the tournament but could not announce it earlier as it could not collect the fund.
‘Now we are pretty convinced that we can accommodate the prize money in our original budget, which is Tk six crore,’ Shohag told New Age. ‘We want to make it a regular tournament and a prestigious event in Asia, so at some stage we had to start it.
‘Unlike the previous editions, this time we will give the winners a replica and will keep the original trophy, which is being made of pure gold, with us.’
Meanwhile, the BFF also rescheduled the Dhaka leg of the eight-team tournament with the final now taking place on January 22 instead of previously scheduled January 20.
The eight remaining matches of the group stages will be held from tomorrow up to January 16, with each day featuring two matches.
The semi-finals will be held on January 18 and 19 and the final will kick off at 5:00pm on January 22.
Nepal will take on Sri Lanka in the first match of the Dhaka phase at 3:00pm on Wednesday and that match will be followed by the one between Bangladesh national team and Felda United representing Malaysia.
All the matches of the Dhaka leg will be held at the Bangabandhu National Stadium.
BFF president Kazi Salahuddin promised to organise the future editions in more glamorous way in order to make it a well recognised international tournament.
’We are introducing cash awards at this edition, and hopefully we will arrange the tournament with more teams, and better teams, so that the tournament becomes an international attraction,’ Salahuddin told reporters at his office.
’I believe the level of competition has increased from the last edition,’ he said ‘We have had some complications regarding the venue. I was also surprised to find the odd infrastructure of the stadium in Jessore.
‘We will try to make sure that these sorts of complications don’t arise in future,’ he said.
-With New Age input
