Wednesday | 11 December 2024 | Reg No- 06
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Wednesday | 11 December 2024 | Epaper
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Bangladesh Football Federation

Corruption, authoritarianism, irregularities  in Kazi Salahuddin’s 16-year rule

Published : Sunday, 20 October, 2024 at 12:00 AM  Count : 339
Muhammad Mahtabuddin
Kazi Md Salahuddin, the first sports superstar of the country, was in charge of the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) for 16 years on the trot. Although the sports fans had a high hope that Salahuddin couldturn the circumstances of the ill-fated football arena in the country, but irregularities, mismanagements, and corruption in the federation during his tenure eventually diminished everyone's hope. The BFF virtually turned to his private fiefdom. 

Salahuddin was first elected  the president of BFF on 28 April 2008. After serving the federation as the president for 16 consecutive years, recently after the fall Awami League regime he decided not to compete for the post anymore. For 16 years neither he allowed nor anyone dared to contest him. 

A heap of complaints of financial irregularities, nepotism,mismanagements, and corruption in the federation came out time and again, albeit he managed to stay in power by utilising his good relations with the head of the past government and people influential in the former regime. Maybe that was why many people including some of the former footballers staged demonstrations against Salahuddin and demanded his resignation after the fall of the Hasina government. After the student-led protests morphed into a mass uprise finally causing the then head of the govt Sheikh Hasina to resign and flee the country on the 5th of August, former booters including Imtiaz Ahmed Nokib, Golam Gaus, Zakir Hossain, Alfaz Ahmed, Waly Ahmed Faisal, Zahid Hasan Emily, Mamunul Islam, and Biplob Bhattacharjee demanded Salahuddin's immediate resignation. 

Over the years, many allegations of corruption against different EC members of Salahuddin's committee were repeatedly heard. Media coverage of his irregularities, corruption, and authoritarianism could not stop him because of his link with the last regime.

Previously, on 12 December 2016, a letter signed by Farid Ahmed, the then director of the Prime Minister's Office, was sent to the Ministry of Youth and Sports (MoYS). The letter accompanied by an intelligence report asked the MoYS to take action based on the report of the intelligence agency containing widespread corruption and leadership failures of BFF. But no action was taken in the end. 

A few months ago, The Adjudicatory Chamber of the Ethics Committee of the governing body of Earth's football FIFA found a total of five present and former BFF officials involved in violations of the Code of Conduct and Ethics.FIFA imposed separate monetary punishments and bans on these individuals at the BFF. 

The then BFF senior vice-president Abdus Salam Murshedy was fined a minimum of Swiss francs (CHF) 10,000 for a proven violation of Art. 14 of the FIFA Code of Ethics (FCE) - General Duties. After the incident, Murshedy claimed through a press release that he was not directly involved in the matter. Then, who was directly involved? - a question remains. 

In May 2024, BFF's former general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag who was already banned by FIFA for two years was given an extended three-year ban and was fined CHF 20,000. Former Chief Financial Officer Abu Hossain and former Operations Manager Mizanur Rahman were banned for two years and fined CHF 10,000 each. These three were found guilty of breaching Art. 14 of the FIFA Code of Ethics (FCE) - General Duties, Art. 16 of the FCE - Duty of Loyalty and Art. 25 of the FCE - Forgery and falsification.

At that time, BFF Store Officer Imrul Hasan Sharif was instructed to participate in training under FIFA's Compliance Programme and was advised to follow the protocol properly. 

As per FIFA's letter, the punishment was effective from 23 May 2024.  

The investigation regarding the corruption was going on for quite a few years. On 14 April 2023, former general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag was found guilty of breaching the FIFA Code of Ethics by the Adjudicatory Chamber of the Ethics Committee of FIFA and was awarded a two-year ban. He was suspended on the grounds of FIFA's Article-13 of the FIFA Code of Ethics (FCE) - General Duties, Art. 15 of the FIFA Code of Ethics (FCE) - Duty of Loyalty, Art. 24 of the FCE - Forgery and falsification and Art. 28 of the FCE - Misappropriation and misuse of funds. 

As Corruption refers to unethical behaviour, which is characterised by misuse of public or organisational power, such a level of violation of the FIFA Code of Ethics was not taken lightly by the international football authority. The decision of ban came to BFF on 14 April 2023 and the federation had to comply with the decision and banned BFF GS from football-related activities for good.

But that was not all. Allegations of corruption were also found against several members of the Salahuddin-led EC committee. Mahfuza Akter Kiron, the chief of the BFF women's wing was accused of irregularities multiple times. 

In 2015, the budget of taka five crore was raised to Taka 15 crore to organise the Bangabandhu Gold Cup. There was an allegation that Modulus Communications, owned by BFF member Mahfuza Akter Kiran, embezzled a huge amount of money. 

At that time, a private TV channel bought the publicity rights of the Bangabandhu Gold Cup. The money earned from that agreement did not go into the BFF fund. It was heard that the money was embezzled with the help of an Indian company (Real Impact Private Limited) by showing fake expenses of USD290,000 for renting telecasting equipment for the tournament.

There was gossip in the BFF House that BFF money was used to purchase and provide tickets of various tournaments, including Euro and World Cup, to the members of the Sheikh Hasina's family and persons for favour. 

A newspaper investigative report said that a Salahuddin and Kiron-led group used to buy cheap tickets from FIFA and AFC and sell them to various businessmen in Bangladesh for a huge amount. As per the report, the former BFF general secretary was one of the accomplices of corruption for both. They all earned and owned huge property.

There were irregularities in depositing and withdrawing money in BFF's bank account during the Salahuddin era. In many cases, the deposit and withdrawal of money was done in cash. However, according to the rules, the fund transaction of an organisation should be done through check. This indicates irregularities and corruption in BFF transactions.

In 2024, BFF got the site of Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protisthan (BKSP) in Sylhet to set up a football academy. The National Sports Council (NSC) spent around Takatwo crore to buy everything needed for the academy. FIFA also donated USD 700,000. However,the donation received was absent in the BFF audit reports. The academy was eventuallyclosedafter a few months.

FIFA's former president Sepp Blatter visited Bangladesh for the second and last time in 2012.The FIFA president's one-day expenditure was shown as Taka 9,092,778 in the BFF audit report. But it is a known fact that FIFA bears all the expenses of the president during his tour. As a result, the expenditure information given by BFF raised questions at that time.

In reality, Kazi Salahuddin who became BFF president first time in 2008 surprisedall with some good moves in his first term. He was able to bringa lot of sponsorsto football. Money started to come into the arena. Players could earn by playing football. But unprofessionalism and mismanagement in arranging different football match leagues faded many good things. 

A good thing was that he was able to keep the football grounds busy over the years. But he was more focused on Dhaka-based football while neglecting local-level football, and divisional and district-level events. There were accusations that many of the District Football Associations could not arrange events as they were not getting money from the BFF. The Federation was not fond of infrastructural development at the district levels. 

Though keeping football on the ground may be an achievement Salahuddin often tends to speak God and controversial  of, so much corruption and irregularities in his extended term destroyed his fame among the fans. What a image the football superstar earned and left behind him during his humiliating exit from the country's football world where he was once on icon?



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