Bangladesh hosted three home matches in the Asian Cup qualifiers, all of which saw packed galleries and strong sponsor presence. Naturally, fans and officials were eager to know how much profit the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) earned from these games. However, even after today’s executive meeting, the federation could not provide a clear breakdown of expenses.
BFF Media Committee Chairman Amirul Islam Babu shared partial financial details after the meeting:
“We earned Tk 1.15 crore from the Bangladesh–Singapore match, Tk 1.27 crore from the Bangladesh–Hong Kong match, and Tk 1.88 crore from the Bangladesh–India match,” he said.
He added that some expenses were still being calculated and would be disclosed later.
Income Disclosed, Expenses Still ‘Under Process’
Income and expenditure were supposed to be one of the major agenda items in today’s meeting. But despite revealing earnings, the federation failed to clarify expenses, raising questions in the football community. The Singapore match took place on June 10, yet no expenditure report has been finalized.
When asked why expenses weren’t disclosed even after six months, Babu responded,
“𝑾𝒐𝒓𝒌 𝒊𝒔 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆. 𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕’𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒚 𝑰 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒗𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒇𝒊𝒈𝒖𝒓𝒆𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒏𝒐𝒘.”
Initially, Babu mentioned only ticket revenue, but after journalists pressed further, he shared income from all sources. Still, he could not provide any information on the income from the two friendly matches Singapore and India played earlier against Nepal and Bhutan.
Financial System Under Review
BFF has recently appointed a new Chief Financial Officer, who has been instructed to make the federation’s accounts more transparent and efficient. Meeting sources said the new CFO received expense documents for the India match only on November 18, making it impossible to present them in time.
Focus Turns to Stadium Development
The National Sports Council has allotted eight stadiums to BFF. Among them, the federation is prioritizing Sylhet National Stadium and plans to submit it to FIFA for approval to host international matches.
“We want FIFA’s full cooperation to upgrade Sylhet so we can host international fixtures there,” Babu said.
The second priority is the Gazipur Stadium, and BFF expressed its intention to utilize all stadiums provided by the NSC.
Race Against Time for Cox’s Bazar Technical Center
FIFA is willing to fund a technical center in Cox’s Bazar, but the project risks cancellation if the federation fails to secure land by December. Despite its importance, the topic was not discussed in detail due to time limitations. Although there were 22 agenda items, many remained unresolved, with the president authorized to finalize some minor issues later.
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