Committed to PEOPLE'S RIGHT TO KNOW
Vol. 5 Num 773 Sun. July 30, 2006  
   
Sports


BFF's emergency meeting Monday


Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) has called an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss the current crisis after its vice-president Kazi Salahuddin declared that he would not work under president SA Sultan.

Declining to comment on Salahuddin's Friday's outburst, where the former star footballer had termed Sultan a liar, BFF general secretary Anwarul Haque Helal told reporters yesterday that the executive committee would discuss all the issues.

"The EC (executive committee) is the supreme authority, so we will discuss everything there on Monday," said Helal.

"We will also serve letters to all of them to join the meeting because only declaration is not good enough to accept it as resignation. Everybody have to follow official procedure," he said while refusing to consider Salahuddin's public announcement as a valid resignation.

Although Helal said that everything would be decided in the emergency meeting, it was all but sure that the BFF unlike the previous occasion will pursue the former national football great to change his mind.

Salahuddin, who is also the chairman of the National Team Management Committee (NTMC), walked out of BFF in disgust after the federation president named controversial Amirul Islam Babu as national team manager for the SA Games overturning the NTMC advice.

With Salahuddin hell-bent not to return the BFF general secretary hinted that there was a chance to dissolve the NTMC.

"EC can resolve the committee because they have the authority to do so," he added.

Replying to a question, Helal admitted that there were no voting in the EC meeting to select Babu as a manager only to establish Salahuddin's Friday's claim that what his president had said at a press conference on Thursday regarding the selection of Babu was an aberration of truth.

"We discussed the issue but there were no voting about the matter. The general sentiment however was in favour of Babu," said Helal.

Meanwhile, the organisation of former footballers, Sonali Otit Club, condemned the remark of SA Sultan where the BFF president said that he didn't know Abu Noman Nannu as a footballer.

"We protested and condemned this senseless remark. One can't make such comment if he has adequate knowledge about Nannu's rich background," the club said in a statement yesterday.