Bangladesh Police Athletic Club emerged champions of the Bangladesh Championship League – the second-tier of professional football league – with a game in hand following a 1-0 win over Agrani Bank SC at the Birshreshtha Shaheed Mostafa Kamal Stadium in Kamalapur yesterday.

Kabirul scored the all-important goal in the 67th minute to help the services team take their tally to 36 points from 19 matches. Their nearest rivals, Uttar Baridhara Club, have 30 points from the same num-ber of matches. Police will play their last match of the league against Feni Soccer Club on May 24, the concluding day of the league.

This title and promotion, which was confirmed in the previous round, will be a debut appearance in the top flight of football for Police AC. The services team had previously played in the Senior Division Foot-ball League in 1998 – then the second tier of football. In recent times, Police AC became champions of second division in 2013 to get promotion to the first division before making their debut in the Bangla-desh Championship League in 2015.

Their only experience of rubbing shoulders against top-flight teams was through the Federation Cup, an invitational tournament where teams from the top two divisions as well as services teams take part.