Fate of BFF Centre of Excellence depends on EISA report

Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) last week appointed the Department of Disaster Science and Climate Resilience of Dhaka University in a bid to get the clearance from FIFA to build a long-awaited BFF Centre of Excellence in Cox's Bazar's Ramu Upazilla.

The department has been asked to make a report including the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) and Environmental Management Plan (EMP) within two months and submit it in April following the instructions from FIFA.

"We have already issued the work order to the Department of Disaster Science and Climate Resilience of Dhaka University earlier this month (on February 7). The department has been asked to submit a report within two months," BFF general secretary Emran Hossain Tushar told The Daily Star on Tuesday.

"After receiving the assessment report, we will send it to FIFA, who will then analyse it and will take the final decision whether to release their fund for BFF Centre of Excellence project worth US$ 3.6 million or will advise us otherwise," Tushar added, mentioning that if the BFF fails to start the works of the excellence centre by next December, the fund might have to be returned to FIFA.

Meanwhile, two other projects -- reinstallments of two artificial turfs at Kamalapur Stadium and BFF artificial ground, respectively -- have also been approved under the FIFA Forward Programme. If BFF can save funds from these two projects then the board can shift and use it in the Centre of Excellence project in Cox's Bazar.

The excellence centre will feature two football fields -- one artificial turf and one natural grass ground -- a medical centre, and a four-storey dormitory among other facilities.

It took BFF nearly nine months to award the project to a neutral entity after circulating an advertisement in this regard on May 14, 2023.

On July 4, 2022, the Bangladesh government handed over 20-acre land to BFF, with The Daily Star running an article on this particular issue on July 16, 2022, mentioning that the government gave away a part of Jungle Khuniya Palong reserved forest in Cox's Bazar to the BFF, increasing a fresh blow to the fast-depleting forests in the region which is home to critically endangered Asian elephants along with other flora and fauna.

A number of organisations working to improve environmental protection in Bangladesh continued to protest for the cancellation of the project in order to preserve biodiversity, and that prompted FIFA to ask BFF to submit the ESIA report even though there was no such requirement initially.