The Bangladesh Premier League will finally get underway from April 7 at the Bangabandhu National Stadium as the Bangladesh

Football Federation (BFF) agreed to meet the demands from 11 dubs for an increase in participation money yesterday.

“We were supposed to start the professional football league from today (April 3) but we made a little change in the schedule to start it from April 7 because we have been working on the sponsorship and there is a demand from the dubs to increase the partidpation money,” said BFF senior vice president Abdus Salam Murshedy, after the BFF executive committee meeting at the BFF House yesterday.

Approving the dubs' demand means the game's governing body will disburse Tk 25 lakh to each participating club, some Tk 15 lakh more than last season's participation money. This increase means the BFF will be left with Tk 2.75 crore of their estimated 5 crore budget for the league, once the clubs are paid off.

It is the first time that the professional football league gets underway a few months after the scheduled month of December and it is because of the arrangement of the six-nation Bangabandhu Gold Cup International

Football Tournament which was held from January 29 to February 8 in Dhaka.

The game's governing body wanted to start the league from March 9, after the completion of season's curtain-raising tournament - the Federation Cup - but a couple of big clubs opposed the move as they wanted to play the league after the AFC U-23 Championship Qualifiers (held from March 27 to 31 in Dhaka), though the clubs had concealed their own problems such as injuries to players, unavailability of foreign players and non-payment to the players.

Now the question was raised whether the BFF would be able to complete other tournaments such as the Independence Cup and the Super Cup after the completion of the Bangladesh Premier League within a short period of time, as Bangladesh have busy international schedules ahead.

Salam Murshedy looked a bit helpless but promised to complete all the matches of the first leg of the professional football league by May 24 at the Bangabandhu National Stadium and to then decide on the matches of the second leg. He also promised to hold other tournaments in time.

Salam also informed that the BFF executive meeting also discussed the reduction of foreign players from three to two in matches from next season and to disburse the participation money on the basis of league standings.