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BFF connects Citycell with landmark deal

Sports Reporter
Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) has struck a landmark sponsorship deal with Citycell worth Tk 16.5 crore for three years, the biggest ever trade in the country's football history.
Although it was reported that Citycell, one of the leading cellular phone operators, will give the governing body of football Tk 15 crore, BFF president Kazi Salahuddin yesterday confirmed that the deal was worth more.
"We are going to get 16.5 crore taka for the next three years when Citycell will be our partner in progress," the BFF boss, who was given sole authority to complete the deal by his executive committee, told The Daily Star.
An MoU (Memorandum of
Understanding) will be signed between the two parties this afternoon at the BFF Bhaban, two and half months after the newly elected BFF body's takeover. The details of the deals will be disclosed to the media after signing of the MoU.
The former national footballer added that Citycell will get title sponsorship rights of two major tournaments under the federation, this month's Federation Cup and the B. League, apart from the school competitions.
Citycell, however, looked to snatch the sponsorship from the grasp of rival cellular phone operators Aktel, who at one stage were seemingly ahead in the race.
It was learned that Aktel — now in the backseat — had wanted a few more days to convince its high-ups for a contract but the delay probably paved way for the country’s only CDMA network, which sealed the victory around midnight on
Saturday.
The BFF president, who had begun negotiating with major corporate houses to get a worthy sponsorship deal since occupying the hot seat of Bangladesh football, has already said that he would need a number of co-sponsors to meet the demand of organising tournaments and run development programmes according to his plans.
"I want to our my own fund for the development progr?immes and events so that I can use the money-we get from FIFA and AFC toxi>|J-centrate on bringing full professionalism to the management of the federation," he said.
It can be mentioned that the FIFA gives the BFF 2.5 lakh dollars per annum as donation and the AFC provides 70,000 dollars for salary of BFF coaches.
Basically, the BFF's previous executive committee survived on these contributions as it only managed less than Tk 5 crore as sponsorship for the last six years.
A major portion of the amount, however, was given by National Football League sponsors Nitol-Ihta Group for three editions of the tournament.
For a starving federation --Salahuddin's committee started with a cash deficit of nearly Tk 40 lakh - the deal is like a silver lining in dark clouds if one considers that football had not been played at top level in the country for one year.
Although the BFF had sold its inaugural professional football league to an Indian agency for at least Tk 75 lakh last year, the B. League ended without any title sponsor. The co-sponsors, however, provided a scanty amount.