No separate allocation for football in nat’l budget

Football failed to get any allocation in the national budget for the fiscal year of 2020-21 despite placing an ambitious request of Tk 40 crore allocation to the finance ministry as finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal today placed a Tk 5,68000 crore national budget at the national parliament.

The government had surprisingly allotted Tk 20 crore for football in the ongoing fiscal year of 2019-20 in the national budget for the first time to ensure overall improvement of football. The Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) could avail only Tk 10 crore as the National Sports Council (NSC) reportedly did not release the rest of the money due to the lack of expenditure papers of the first installment of Tk 10 crore.

However, BFF president Kazi Salahuddin said in a video message that they did not expect any allocation from the government in the time of coronavirus pandemic.      

"I did not expect to have the allocation for Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) in national budget amidst coronavirus because I did not try. Everyone has to be alive first and there are many [problems] that they have to face.

"We will also face the financial problem like others but it is our task to overcome the financial problem. I believe it is not a problem, we will overcome it when the football resumes after coronavirus. Then we will request the government to support us," said Salahuddin. 

Meanwhile, the government has allocated Tk 1474 crore to the youth and sports ministry for the fiscal of 2020-21. The allocation is higher than the revised outlay of Tk 1452 crore but lower than the original allocation of Tk 1485 crore in the current fiscal.

Of Tk 1474 crore allocation, Tk 1245 is for managerial and Tk 233 crore for development budgets.