Domestic football in Bangladesh has seen its ups and downs in the year 2018. With ever increasing quality of football coming from the domestic leagues, the response from both the players and the supporters has never been more vibrant. BPL, BCL, Independence cup, Federation Cup are the center of attention in the domestic league of 2018.
The year started with Abahani Ltd. Dhaka clenching the title of Bangladesh Premiere League of season 2017. The team secured their sixth title with one match remaining showing exemplary professionalism and passion for the beautiful game. Sheikh Jamal became second place holders with 47 points earned. Farashganj Sporting Club was relegated to the senior division with only 17 points achieved in 22 games played.
The next big domestic knock out based tournament held in January 16 was Independence Cup 2018, sponsored by Walton Group. The Final match of Independence Cup was between Arambagh Krira Sangha and Chittagong Abahoni Ltd. Arambagh shocked Chittagong Abahoni to claim their first ever Independence cup title. Arambagh dominated the whole match and claimed their much deserved victory. The champions added a whole new dimension to the domestic league spectrum of Bangladesh Football.
Meanwhile the First registration window of BPL 2018-19 began from July 25 and continued till August 30. The Committee also decided that from the next season, the U-17 football league will be held in league format also. The transfer window also started from July 25 and was scheduled to go on till October 15. At the initial stage, Bangladesh Premiere League was scheduled to start in November 23, 2018 and continue till the last week of May 2019. But was later postponed to January 2019 as the participating clubs of BPL 2018-19 had submitted an application to postpone the kick-off the country’s top tier football by citing several inconveniences. Taking their request into cognizance, the BFF Professional Football League Committee decided to postpone the kick-off of BPL 2018-19 to the first week of January, 2019.
The Walton Federation Cup 2018 powered by premier Bank LTD commenced from October 27, 2018 with total 13 teams participating. This year the prize money for the winning team was set at 5lakhs BDT and runners up team would be awarded 3 lakh BDT. In the onset match of the tournament Chittagong Abahoni and Rahmatganj MFC faced off in what was an exciting match throughout. The semi-final match between Abahani Ltd. Dhaka and Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi witnessed a score line of 4-2, the highest in the tournament. The two finalists, Abahani Ltd. Dhaka and Bashundhara Kings, faced off against each other in a nail biting match that took place on November 23, 2018. Abahani clenched victory with a scoreline of 3-1 and won their third consecutive Federation Cup title.
The second Independence Cup tournament of 2018 started with its first match on December 1. Although the tournament is a seasonal one, this is the second Independence Cup that is going to be staged in the same calendar year. Recently concluded Federation Cup runners-up Bashundhara Kings were pitted against top-flight giants Sheikh Russel Krira Chakra and Lt. Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club Limited in the group of death. While many domestic league matches were concluded during the year 2018, Bangladesh Champions League 2018-19 will kick off on January 30, 2019.
Overall it was a decent year for Bangladesh domestic football. All the scheduled matches and tournaments were carried out without any major hiccups. At the moment, the future seems bright for Bangladesh domestic leagues and the fans wait for a blockbuster football year in 2019.
