The curtain rose on the domestic football season with the Challenge Cup, which saw Bashundhara Kings and Mohammedans clash on November 22. Mohammedan lost the match despite taking the lead at King's Arena. Team coach Alfaz Ahmed blamed smoke flares thrown by fans for the loss. The Mohammedan club authorities have written a letter to the BAF general secretary on Wednesday detailing the incident. Apart from demanding appropriate action regarding such unpleasant incident, they also expressed apprehension about security. Mohammedan has also announced that he will not participate in any future matches at Kings Arena.
The letter, signed by Mohammedan Club director-in-charge Kazi Feroze Rashid, is about 'deliberate untoward incident in Challenge Cup final.' In this letter, Mohammedan Club detailed the incident of throwing colored smoke flares during the second half of the match. They noted that in the first half of the match, there were no spectators in the section, and in the second half spectators entered it by design. They further claimed that a group of 50-60 supporters of Bashundhara Kings harassed their goalkeeper with inaudible abuse and whistling of vuvuzelas. At one point Bashundhara Kings supporters threw smoke flares at Mohammedan footballers. This forced the foreign referee to suspend the game. Behind the overall incident, Mohammedan Club feels that Bashundhara Kings supporters have purposefully and well-planned the incident.
Mohammedan were leading 1-0 before the incident halted play. Moments later, Tapu Burman's goal brought the Kings level within three minutes of the restart. Kings later scored two more goals to win the match.
They also said that according to FIFA rules, if such an incident occurs in a match, the match is declared abandoned and the result of the game is given in favor of the opposing team, which has many precedents in the world. But in the greater interest of football, Mohammedan ended the game that day. The club authorities have threatened to report the matter to the World Football Organization if Buffo does not take any action in this matter.
Mohamedan feels that every game the Kings' rabid supporters behave towards opposing fans, making the opposing team feel insecure. Apart from this, the club expressed its anger over the lack of reserved seats for Mohammedan president, director and chairman of the football committee and other officials to watch the match. At the same time, it has been announced that no more matches will be played at Mohammedan Kings ground due to insecurity.
