Grameenphone Super Cup
Win 4 games, win Tk 1 crore
Four hurdles to cross. Taka one crore to gain. The message is loud and clear. After an extended year-long break, the much-hyped and much talked about Super Cup is back.
Following an enforced break which was imposed upon the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) due to the withdrawal of previous sponsors Citycell, fellow telecom company grameenphone has come to the rescue to ensure that the second edition of the money-spinning and crowd pulling event will start again from Friday.
The tournament will kick-off with newly crowned league champions Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club facing off against traditional powerhouses Brothers Union at the Bangabandhu National Stadium. The fixtures, logos and other such details were revealed during an event at the Ruposhi Bangla Hotel yesterday.
Unlike the first edition of the tournament in 2009, the second coming of the Super Cup sees only six teams split into two groups taking part, which means that the winners check of one-crore is possible to attain by negotiating just four matches.
“We have only a little time in hand to complete the Super Cup before the Bangladesh national team’s World Cup pre-qualifiers against Lebanon and thus back-pedalled from our previous plan and decided to hold the tournament within a short period,” said BFF tournament committee chairman Harunur Rashid.
League champions Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club, Abahani and Brothers Union have been drawn in Group A while Group B consists of league runners-up Muktijoddha Sangsad, Sheikh Russel KC and cup holders Mohammedan SC.
Former captain of Bangladesh national cricket team Khaled Mahmud, TV artist Bijori Barkatullah and model Mehzabin picked names of the three teams from three categories while BFF president Kazi Salahuddin was also present at the occassion.
The tournament committee had an actual plan to stage the group matches of the Grameenphone Super Cup on a two-leg basis which would then be followed by the seminfinals and a final. But their best laid plans were thwarted because of the Bangladesh team’s international engagements and the need to start preparation work at the BNS for the international friendly between Argentina and Nigeria on September 6.
The first edition of the Super Cup drew a lot of attention amongst football fans and a large number of spectators turned up to watch the matches with the final itself drawing a full house. This time however, the authorities admitted that the response might not be as proficient due to a lack of time to drum up interest about the tournament.
Despite this, tournament committee co-chairman Shawkat Ali Khan Jahangir seemed confident that there would be a considerable turnout. He also informed that a total of Tk 1.45 crore will be distributed amongst six participants with champions getting Tk one-crore, runners-up Tk 20 lakh while both losers of the semifinals will be awarded Tk 7.5 lakh each and remaining two participants will be given Tk 5 lakh each.
Tahmid Azizul Huq, head of corporate communications of grameenphone, first thanked the national football team for its advancement into the second round of the World Cup pre-qualifiers and then thanked the football federation at their efforts to organize the Super Cup despite numerous commitments.
“We believe this tournament will bring life to country’s football,” Huq said. “We actually want to spread football at the grassroot level as well as to make our brand popular amongst people. We believe football has a good potential and it will go forward if the right sponsor is with football.”
Tickets at all galleries have been fixed at Tk 50 while VIP tickets are at Tk 100
-With The Daily Star input
