Bangladesh Premier League (football)

The Bangladesh Premier League (বাংলাদেশ প্রিমিয়ার লিগ), simply known as the BPL and officially ABG Bashundhara Bangladesh Premier League since 2023 for sponsorship reasons, is the top tier of the Bangladeshi football league system. It is run by the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF). The Dhaka Derby between Abahani Dhaka and Mohammedan SC is one of the league's most popular matches. The BPL superseded the Dhaka Premier Division League which had functioned as the top tier from 1948 to 2006.

History
Founded in 2007 as the country's first professional national football league, the BPL was originally known as the B.League and was renamed the Bangladesh League in 2009. In 2012, it was rebranded as the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL).

The first B League match took place on 2 March 2007 between Abahani Limited Dhaka and Muktijoddha Sangsad KC at the Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka, ending in a goalless draw. The next day in Khulna, Prashanta Dey scored the first goal in the history of professional football in the country as Khulna Abahani blanked the capital side Rahmatganj MFS 2–0. On 27 March 2007, Alfaz Ahmed netted the first hat-trick in B League history to give Muktijoddha Sangsad a 4–1 win over Rahmatganj MFS.

Abahani Limited Dhaka have won the league a record six times since 2007. In the 2015–16 season, Abahani Limited Dhaka also became the first team to win the professional league title with an unbeaten record.

Competition
From the 2023–24 season, there are 11 clubs in the Bangladesh Premier League, instead of the previous 12. During the course of a season (usually from December to July) each club plays every other club twice (a double round-robin system), once at their home stadium and once at that of their opponents, for 20 games. Teams receive three points for a win and one point for a draw. No points are awarded for a loss. Teams are ranked by position on the league table depending on points, then the head-to-head record between the tied teams is taken into consideration, and then goal difference.

Promotion and relegation
A system of promotion and relegation exists between the Bangladesh Premier League and the Bangladesh Championship League. The two lowest-placed teams in the Bangladesh Premier League are relegated to the Championship League, and the top two teams from the Championship League are promoted to the Bangladesh Premier League.

Former clubs
The following clubs are not competing in the Bangladesh Football Premier League during the 2023–24 season but have done previously for at least one season.

All-time BPL table
The all-time BPL table is an overall record of all match results, points, and goals of every team that has played in BPL since its inception in 2007. The table is accurate to the end of the 2022–23 season. Teams in bold are part of the 2023–24 season. Numbers in bold are the record (highest either positive or negative) numbers in each column.

League or status prior to the 2023–24 season:

Head coaches
In terms of coaching performance, after the first 15 seasons of the BPL, a Bangladeshi head coach has won the BPL six times while a foreign head coach has won it eight times and one season was cancelled for COVID-19. Pakir Ali of Sri Lanka was the first foreign head coach to win the BPL while the second coach was Ali Akbar Pourmoslemi of Iran. Spaniard Óscar Bruzón was the most recent foreign coach to win the BPL in the 2022–23 season. He has the most BPL championships at four.

Amalesh Sen was the first Bangladeshi coach to win the BPL in the league's opening season and he has won BPL championshis at three times. Maruful Haque and Atiqur Rahman Atiq the only other Bangladeshi coach to win the Bangladesh Premier League.

The current head coaches in the Bangladesh Premier League are:

Top scorers by season
Season after season, players in the BPL compete for the golden boot title, which is awarded at the end of each season to the top scorer throughout the entire season. The most recent winner of the golden boot is Dorielton Gomes, who won the golden boot at the end of the 2022–23 season after scoring 20 goals. Raphael Odovin Onwrebe is both currently the holders of the most golden boot titles with two golden boots. The five Nigerians make up the six golden boots won by Nigerians, the most of any nationality in the league. While to date Enamul Haque remains the only local golden boot winner, claiming the award in 2009–10.

Appearances
Italics denote players still playing professional football, Bold denotes players still playing in the Bangladesh Premier League.

Media coverage
132 matches of season 2015–2016 were broadcast live at BTV World and Boishakhi TV, also live commentary was produced by Radio Next FM. Every match of this league has been streaming live on BFF's page of Mycujoo platform from 2018 to 2019 season. Bangla TV started broadcasting selected matches of the BPL 2018–19 matches live from 9 May 2019. The first sports channel of Bangladesh T sports started to broadcast the matches of BPL 2020–21 from 13 January 2021.

Continental qualification
Bangladesh Premier League teams can qualify for the top Asian club competitions – the AFC Champions League qualifying play-offs and AFC Cup – through their performance in the league. Before the 2012–13 season Bangladeshi clubs were only allowed entry to the now defunct AFC President's Cup, which was a competition targeted for emerging football nations. Since the 2021–22 season the league winners are allowed entry to the qualifying play-offs of the AFC Champions League.

Abahani Limited Dhaka was the first Bangladesh Premier League club to club to play in Asian competition when they participated in the 2008 AFC President's Cup. The club qualified for the competition, after winning the first edition of the league in 2007. The first six seasons of the league Bangladeshi clubs only participated in the AFC President's Cup, until Sheikh Russel KC the winners of the 2012–13 league season were given entry 2015 AFC Cup qualifying play-off. The winners of the 2013–14 season of the league Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club, were the first Premier League club to be given direct entry into the AFC Cup, during the 2016 AFC Cup.

In July 2022, it was confirmed that Bashundhara Kings, the winners of the 2021–22 league season will partake in the AFC Champions League Play-off round, while holding an automatic place in the AFC Cup group stages if they are unable to advance past the play-offs. Meanwhile, the runner-up of the league will take part in the qualifiers of the AFC Cup or will directly qualify for the competition if the league winners advance past the AFC Champions League play-offs. The league's third place team along with the Federation Cup champions, will remain standby for the AFC Cup Play-off round if the league winners succeed to qualify for the AFC Champions League main stage.

Updated on 5 May 2023. (Source)

Defunct
Competitions previously run by AFC include: