Imrul skips NTC meeting as BFF waits on Kings' response

National Teams Committee (NTC) deputy chairman and Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) senior vice president Imrul Hassan, who is also president of Bashundhara Kings, was the only absentee from an emergency NTC meeting with BFF president and NTC chairman Tabith Awal on Sunday.

The meeting was held regarding Bashundhara Kings' refusal to release 10 players for the national team's ongoing preparation camp for the September friendlies against Nepal in Kathmandu.

"It would have been better for us to make a decision, but neither the Bashundhara Kings president nor their manager picked up phone calls despite repeated efforts," BFF media committee chairman Amirul Islam Babu said after the meeting, having failed to communicate with Kings officials in the last couple of days.

Apart from Tabith, four other NTC members -- Babu, Satyajit Das Rupu, Iqbal Hossain, and Imtiaz Hamid Sabuz -- physically attended the meeting, while another member, Shahadat Hossain, joined virtually.

The BFF on Sunday decided to send another letter to Bashundhara Kings, requesting them to release players "for the sake of the national team." Hoping for positive feedback from Kings, the federation also announced it would hold another meeting in three to four days.

Acknowledging the disruption to the ongoing camp, where Bangladesh coach Javier Cabrera has been training with only 12 players, Babu also said they have no plans to stop the camp or cancel the scheduled friendly matches against Nepal on September 6 and 9.