Mohammedan Sporting Club ended Bashundhara Kings' unbeaten home record with a 1-0 win in a fascinating Bangladesh Premier League encounter at the Bashundhara Kings Arena yesterday.

In a first of its kind initiative, the Bangladesh Football Federation has given recognition to Alamgir Sarkar as the best referee for the month of December, and hailed the initiative as a step towards motivating referees to do a better job.

Bashundhara Kings continued their unbeaten record over Abahani in the Bangladesh Premier League with a 2-0 win at the Sheikh Fazlul Haque Moni Stadium in Gopalganj today.

Sheikh Morsalin, one of the rising stars in Bangladesh football, has been struggling to find a place in the Bashundhara Kings playing XI this season, having not played a match for the club since December 11.

Mohammedan Sporting Club registered their second victory of the Bangladesh Premier League to stay hot on the heels of runaway leaders Bashundhara Kings, with both teams running comfortable winners as the league resumed following a 12-day break.

Footballer-turned-coach Alfaz Ahmed emphasised on professionalism at club level to build on Bangladesh’s impressive performance in 2023 for improved displays in the future. The legendary striker believes that there is no alternative to producing star players in order to bringing the glory days of football back.

Abahani's poor start to the season continued as they were beaten 1-0 by Fortis FC in the second round of the Bangladesh Premier League at the Muktijuddho Smriti Stadium in Rajshahi yesterday.

Meanwhile, Rahmatganj MFS came from behind twice to tie 2-2 with Bangladesh Police FC in Munshiganj, after losing 2-1 to the same opponents in the quarterfinals of the recently concluded Independence Cup.

The absence of the Kings from the WFL means that the top-flight women's league is predicted to be even weaker, with many top players likely to remain inactive after the current year saw no women's league.

Six-time champions Abahani started their Bangladesh Premier League campaign on the wrong foot for the seventh time as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Rahmatganj MFS in their opening fixture at the Sheikh Fazlul Haque Moni Stadium in Gopalganj today.

The Kings had made a habit of staging come-from-behind victories in their recent AFC Cup campaign, where they won four matches on the trot after conceding first.

With the win, the Kings have now equalled Mohammedan’s tally of three titles in the Independence Cup.

“On paper, Bashundhara Kings are a better side than Mohammedan and we are the underdogs,” said Mohammedan coach Alfaz Ahmed

Bashundhara Kings and Mohammedan Sporting Club set up a final clash in the Independence Cup with victories in their respective semifinals today. 

Defending champions Bashundhara Kings will look to leave their continental miseries behind by booking a final berth in the first tournament of the season when they square off against two-time champions Abahani in the first semifinal of the Independence Cup today.

Bashundhara Kings want to assess what went wrong in their AFC Cup qualifiers campaign, which came to an end on Monday under controversial circumstances, and decide their plan of action to fix their woes in international competitions.

Needing only a single point to progress, the Bangladesh Premier League champions were on the verge of creating a piece of history to enter into the inter-zonal semifinals.

Shrugging off some off-the-field hassles in India, Bashundhara Kings are looking forward to moving into the knockout stage of the AFC Cup for the first time when they take on Odisha FC in their last group match at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar today.

AKM Maruful Haque has been involved in coaching since the second edition of the professional football league in the 2008-9 season, but the country's lone UEFA A licence coach, along with other successful coaches such as Shafiqul Islam Manik, Saiful Bari Titu, and Julfikar Mahmud Mintu, have not been involved with top-fight football for the first time in the professional era due to the influx of foreign coaches. The 54-year-old successful coach, who has 11 titles and six runners-up trophies to his name, spoke to Anisur Rahman of The Daily Star about various aspects of the country's coaches and coaching. The excerpts of the conversation are as follows:

Bashundhara Kings are set to fly to India this morning to final AFC Cup group stage encounter against Odisha FC with the hope of making it to the knockout stage of Asia's second-tier club competition for the first time.