Sports Desk:

A fan group demanded the resignation of Bangladesh Football Federation president Kazi Salahuddin on Sunday, amid growing sentiment for institutional reforms in the aftermath of the widespread student-people movement that forced former prime minister Sheikh Hasina to resign and flee the country on August 5.

The group, namely, Bangladeshi Football Ultras, organised a programme—March to BFF—and gathered at the BFF premises, chanted slogans before conveying their demand through BFF general secretary Emran Hossain Tushar.

‘With due respect, we urged him [Salahuddin] to resign from the BFF president’s post. We will continue to press home our demand and gather here [BFF premises] until he resigns,’ general secretary of the fans group told the reporters.

This was not the first time that this group convened at the BFF premises; they had previously sought the resignation of three BFF organisers, two days before BFF senior vice-president Abdus Salam Murshedy quit citing personal reasons.

On August 6, they demanded Salahuddin, Murshedy, and BFF women’s wing chairman Mahfuza Akhter Kiron’s resignations for failing to meet the expectations of the country’s football fans during their tenures for more than a decade.

The fans also declared that they do not want to become a group of miscreants by harming any BFF installations.

‘We know there is a residential arrangement for female footballers within the BFF building; they are our sisters. We have no intention of attacking any BFF installations. But we will continue to advocate for our demands,’ added the coordinator.

‘We respect Salahuddin as a legendary footballer of the country, and a member of the Swadhin Bangla Football Dal, but he has failed as a football organiser. And for that reason we urged him to resign willingly,’ he replied to a query.