Bangladesh Premier League football season abandoned

The Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) football's current season has been abandoned by the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) because of the coronavirus pandemic. Salam Murshedy, vice-president of BFF announced the abandonment on Sunday. 

The league committee had passed on the critical situation to BFF's executive committee and after a meeting on Sunday, they decided to abandon the league and the Independence Cup. 

"We could complete the latest round of the league, some clubs had played six games whereas some had played five. So, taking all into consideration and after requests from different clubs, we (BFF's executive committee) have abandoned the current league season. There will be no championship and no relegation," Murshedy said in a press briefing. 

He added, "We had the Federation Cup, the BPL and the Independence Cup scheduled for this season. We completed the Federation Cup but we are abandoning the other two because of the pandemic."

Murshedy also added that if the situation improves then the 2020-21 season will kick off from September-October. 

This means that no team will automatically qualify for the AFC Cup from Bangladesh and Federation Cup winner Basundhara Kings will qualify for the qualifiers of the AFC Cup. 

It is still unclear if the footballers will get the full payment from their clubs as there has been no clear instruction from the BFF regarding this manner. 

Earlier, BFF General Secretary Abu Nayem Shohagh told The Business Standard (TBS) that football was facing a loss up to tk 15-20 crores because of the pandemic.