BFF inquiry committee won’t summon Shohag for now

The convener of the Bangladesh Football Federation inquiry committee Kazi Nabil Ahmed said that the committee won’t summon the banned general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag for now as FIFA and BFF already made decisions on him.

But the BFF vice-president further added that if they need to talk with Shohag after talking with others, they would summon him to the BFF house.

“No chance to summon him, we are not doing it. FIFA has already made a decision about him, and the board (BFF EC) also gave its decision. His appeal is another matter. First, we will talk to others. If we need to talk with Shohag after talking with others, we would summon him. We can't make all decisions today (Sunday), we have to investigate further,” Nabil told the reporters on Sunday after the first meeting of the inquiry committee.

“We will summon all the names mentioned in the FIFA report. Also, if we need to speak with any others out of these names for the sake of the investigation, we will request them to come.... We can also talk to the finance committee chairman at any time. If he has anything to say, we will hear that,” the spokesman of the committee added.

While asking the focal point of this inquiry, the convener replied, “We will not challenge the FIFA report. There are logics behind FIFA’s decision. Actually, we will look into these issues, and find out if there are any other instructions for us not to repeat the same mistakes in the future… There are some observations from FIFA. We are working on it.”

The BFF national teams committee also held a meeting on this day there. The committee decided to arrange a friendly match away in Cambodia on June 15 as a preparation for the upcoming SAFF Championship, scheduled to be held from June 21 to July 04 in Bengaluru, India. Also, the committee decided to call the training camp on June 4 at Bashundhara Kings Arena in the capital.

“The decision to have the training camp at Kings Arena has been taken considering the similar ground condition to India and to avoid travel even though they had the opportunity to have the camp in Saudi Arabia. The team will fly for Cambodia after having a few days training here and leave Phnom Penh for Bangalore,” Nabil, who is also the chairman of the national teams’ committee, said after the meeting.

The BFF VP further said that they are trying to have the men’s football team included in the contingent of the Asian Games, which is expected to be held after a year gap due to a Covid-19 outbreak in China from September 23 to October 8 this year in Hangzhou. Bangladesh Olympic Association (BOA) earlier on Saturday in an EC meeting decided not to send the men’s Olympic football team to the Games.

“We are talking with BOA to have our men’s team in the Asian Games. There were a lot of issues discussed in the BOA meeting yesterday. We haven't officially been informed of any decision as yet. The press release from BOA says about 17 disciplines, including football. We are hoping the men's team will also be there,” he concluded.