Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) president SA Sultan maintained his cunning way of defending himself even after accusing the media of being dishonest and politically motivated.
Sultan, who sparked controversy earlier this month by attacking the country's sports adviser Tapan Chowdhury and the media, regretted his remarks against the sports boss.
In a letter to Tapan Chowdhury, dated December 17, he apologised for hurting the sports adviser but mentioned that he was provoked by questions (from a journalist?) leading to his answers, which Sultan claims as an 'inadvertent outburst'.
The BFF yesterday revealed the copy of the letter, which seems to be a vain face-saving attempt by Sultan, who had said previously that the sports adviser had no jurisdiction to comment about the football federation.
Sultan, in a letter to the NSC chairman and Army Chief Moeen U Ahmed, complained against the sports adviser and also mentioned that the 'media cannot be controlled without exchange'. He also accused the media of being politically motivated in the same letter.
Admitting that he chose 'a few wrong words' in his letter to the NSC chairman, Sultan declared in his letter to Tapan: "Instead of journalists, I should have written a few journalists. If something I have said has hurt you and the journalists, I regret it."
Sultan also believed that the letter to the NSC chief was purposefully leaked. He also went as far as requesting the sports adviser to investigate the reasons behind the leak.
"I had to tender my resignation to the FIFA president under those circumstances and also gave a copy to the NSC chairman," were Sultan's last words in the letter.
The BFF president's resignation for 'unavoidable circumstances and personal reasons', however, has been rejected by FIFA.
The BFF also made public the letter it received from FIFA president Sepp Blatter, dated December 17.
Another confusion that arose was that although Blatter referred to Sultan's resignation letter tendered on December 12, the copy sent to the NSC chairman was dated December 15.
Did Sultan sign two resignation letters? Only he can answer it.
Blatter's letter to Sultan says: "FIFA confirms that the tenure of the current BFF leadership has been extended by FIFA till the roadmap which has been defined by FIFA and AFC last June, comprising the following elements, has been accomplished:
- Democratisation of the electoral process by creating football-only elected and independent district and divisional FAs with statutes approved by FIFA,
- Amending and ratifying the BFF statutes along FIFA's principles and standard statutes,
- Organisation of the BFF elections following the agreed timeline, first at district/division level and then at national level by April 30, 2008.
"Any disruption of the latter, either your resignation (or your colleagues'), or the non-respect of the various phases of the roadmap by others especially governmental ones, would be considered as a violation of a FIFA decision with the consequences defined at the Article 14 of the FIFA Statutes."
The Article 14 is all about suspensions.