With hopes of electing an executive committee that will bring real change to the country's football, the much-discussed elections of the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) will be held today at the Radisson Blu Water Garden Hotel in Dhaka.

After the annual general meeting in the morning session, some 134 delegates will cast their votes to elect a 21-member executive committee from 2:00-5:00 pm with the AFC delegate monitoring the election procedure.

Incumbent president Kazi Salahuddin will fight for his third and final term at the hot seat of the game's governing body and he will virtually be vying against unheralded candidate and fertiliser businessman Kamrul Ashraf Khan Poton following the retreat of the two other candidates, Golam Rabbani Helal and Nurul Islam Nuru, who have opted out of the polls in support of Salahuddin and Poton respectively.

Former national striker Salahuddin came took the reins of the game's governing body after defeating Major General (Rtd) Amin Ahmed Chowdhury in 2008 and then retained the BFF president's post unopposed in 2012, but this time the legendary footballer is going to face the heat of elections again, especially after the opposition group -- led by his once close friend Manzur Kader and Poton -- alleged that Kazi Salahuddin failed to take the game's development to the grassroots in his eight years as well alleging some financial irregularities.

The Salahuddin-led combined panel however alleged that he and his colleagues had been facing constant pressure from a certain group to quit the race, but they still stuck to the election procedure to retain their posts.

It is however hard to anticipate who is going to sit at the helm of the country's football federation; the Kazi Salahuddin-led combined panel is seemingly in a good position following the expression of support from the District and Divisional Organisers' Council, who have 50 per cent or 67 votes out of 134. The combined panel is backed by the representatives of big Dhaka clubs like Abahani, Sheikh Russel KC, Brothers Union, Team BJMC, Victoria SC and others clubs at lower level.   

The Kamrul Ashraf-led Save Football Panel is also backed by big clubs like Sheikh Jamal DC, Mohammedan SC and Arambagh KS while there is also some support from the district level.

Both panels have already declared their manifestos, which bear similarities in their promise for development of football at the grassroots level. There are however whispers in the football arena that, like in previous elections, money is likely to have more of a say in determining the selection of a few high-profile posts.

The contest for the president and four vice-president posts will garner most of the spotlight after incumbent senior vice president Abdus Salam Murshedy was elected unopposed. Although the presidential contest is confined to two candidates, 10 candidates are strongly contesting the four vice-president posts, and there is very little chance that the four posts will be populated by candidates from a single panel.

The election commission secretary yesterday informed that the commission will first declare the winner of the BFF president after counting the ballot papers and then they will again sit to count the ballot papers for the four vice-presidents and declare the winners. Lastly they will declare the winners of the 15 executive members. The Salahuddin-led panel will contest all 21 posts while Poton's panel will vie for 19.

Meanwhile, the delegates outside the capital have started to check into the Radission Blu from yesterday afternoon with the annual general meeting expected to get underway with the participation of all 134 delegations.