National Football Championship (Bangladesh)

The Bangabandhu National Football Championship (বঙ্গবন্ধু জাতীয় ফুটবল চ্যাম্পিয়নশিপ), previously known as the Sher-e-Bangla National Football Championship or the Sher-e-Bangla Cup is a district-level national football tournament in Bangladesh, contested by districts and government institutions of the country. The tournament is run under the supervision of the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF).

History
The tournament was introduced by the East Pakistan Sports Federation in 1963 in memory of A. K. Fazlul Huq, who was popularly known as Sher-e-Bangla, upon the request of Abbas Mirza, former captain of Calcutta Mohammedan. Initially, the tournament would see Dhaka League clubs, University, and Secondary Education Board teams compete.

Following the Independence of Bangladesh, the tournament was reintroduced in 1973 as an inter-district national football competition contested by the district teams and government institutions under the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF). On 10 January 2020, the BFF decided to revive the National Championship after a gap of 13 years, celebrating the 100th birth anniversary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Upon its resumption it was renamed as the Bangabandhu National Football Championship.

Format
Along with 64 districts football teams three service teams, six public universities, five education boards, and Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishthan will participate in the tournament. The participants districts have been divided in eight zones named Padma, Meghna, Jamuna, Shitalakshya, Brahmaputra, Surma, Chitra and Buriganga. Each zone consists eight teams except Surma, which contains seven teams. There will be knockout matches in every zone which will be played on home and away basis. In first round, a pair of teams of every zone will play each other which will decide four winners. In second round, that four winners in each zone will play zonal semifinal. In third round, the semi-final winners will face each other in zonal final. The champion from each zone will qualify for the final round.

Teams representing education boards, universities & the services teams—a total of 15 teams—are divided in four groups in Sheba zone. The teams of this zone will play on round-robin basis. Champion and runners-up of Sheba zone will join eight zonal champions in the final round.