Dewan Shafiul Arefin Tutul, a former director of Bangladesh Cricket Board and sports secretary of Bangladesh Awami League, added an extra flavour to the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) polls by submitting his nomination for the posts of senior vice-president and vice president from the Save Football panel.

Despite being a former footballer, Tutul had been involved with cricket for long, and the influential sport organiser has now joined Save Football panel, which alleged that the Salahuddin-led committee has failed to develop football in the last eight years.

“I have come to contest in BFF polls after being requested by my nearest ones, but I don't have any magic. However I will try to take football to its previous standard,” Tutul said. “Having known everything, I have come here with a hope of winning.”

“When I was a BCB director, we had started with Tk 33 lakh deficit, but had Tk 78 crore as FDR before I left BCB. I believe our team can take football to a good position if we are elected,” said Tutul, who was seemingly behind the screen for the Salahuddin-led panel in the last elections.

A total of 58 nominations were submitted against 21 BFF posts yesterday after 62 nominations were sold for the April 30 elections.

Of 58 nominations, four candidates -- Kazi Salahuddin, Golam Rabbani Helal, Nurul Islam Nuru, Kamrul Ashraf Khan Poton -- submitted nominations for the president post. Four candidates -- Tutul, Abdus Salam Murshedy, Manzur Kader and Lokman Hossain Bhuiyan -- submitted nominations for senior vice-president post while 11 candidates -- Tabith Awal, Badal Roy, Shamsul Haque Chowdhury, Mohiuddin Ahmed Mohi, Sheikh Mohammad Maruf Hasan, Khurshid Ahmed Babul, Mominul Haque Saeed, Ashraf Uddin Ahmed Chunnu, Lokman and Nazib Ahmed -- submitted their nominations for four vice-president posts.