The 2019–20 season was Bangladesh Police Football Club's first-ever season in the top flight, the Bangladesh Premier League.
On 16 March 2020, all sorts of sports activities in Bangladesh were postponed until 31 March as a precaution to combat the spread of coronavirus in the country, according to a press release issued by the Ministry of Youth and Sports. Following that, the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) postponed all Bangladesh Premier League matches until 31 March.
On 17 May 2020, the BFF executive committee, following an emergency meeting, declared the 12th edition of the league abandoned, scrapping promotion and relegation while cancelling the Independence Cup from the calendar.
Summary
Pre-season After promoting to the top-tier league, Police FC announced Nicolas Vitorovic as their head coach for the upcoming season in August. They signed Antonio Laskov, Luka Rotkovic, Aidar Mambetaliev, former Kyrgyzstan international Artur Muladjanov, and Victor Onyilo to fill up the foreign quota. However, Victor was replaced by Puerto Rico national team captain Sidney Rivera. They also signed Bangladesh-origin American footballer Sanjay Karim, which made headlines. He practiced with the team for 2 months but couldn't play in domestic leagues and cups as he doesn't have an International Transfer Certificate (ITC). So his contract was terminated in January 2019.
Police FC played 4 friendlies in October and November. Police FC participated in a pre-season tournament, the Mymensingh DFA Challenge Cup, along with Saif SC and Chittagong Abahani. The first game was won in a tie-breaker against Chittagong Abahani. The second game also won against Saif SC in a tie-breaker, and Police FC qualified for the final. The final match was lost by 1–0 against Chittagong Abahani and ended the pre-season with the runners-up medal.
December Police FC started the 2019–20 season on 18 December. They played their first Federation Cup game in 30 years. The match was lost by 4–0 against Dhaka Abahani. However, the second game was won 3–1 against Arambagh KS on 21 December, and they qualified for the quarterfinal. Sidney scored a brace, and Shadin scored in added time. In the quarterfinal, Police FC faced Saif SC on 31 December. The match was also won by 3–1. Bablu scored a goal and Sidney scored a back-to-back brace. Police FC qualified for the first-ever semi-final in their history.
January On 3 January, the Federation Cup semi-final was lost by 3–0 against defending runners-up Bashundhara Kings. Thus, the Federation Cup campaign of Police FC ended.
February On 16 February, Police FC started their first BPL season against defending runners-up Dhaka Abahani. The match was lost by 2–0. On 20 February, Police FC held defending champion Bashundhara Kings to 1-1. Nurul Faisal of Bashundhara scored an own goal. Police faced another newly promoted team, Uttar Baridhara, on 24 February. Police FC won the match by 2-1 and grabbed their first victory as Sidney and Laskov found the net.
March Police FC were held by Brother Union on 6 March. Bablu scored the goal for Police, and the match ended in 1-1. On 13 March, Police FC suffered their second defeat against Rahmatganj MFS by 2–0.
The other matches of the month were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pre-season and friendlies
Current squad Bangladesh Police FC squad for 2019–20 season.
Competition
Overview
Federation Cup
Group A
Knockout stage
Premier League
League table
Results summary
Results by round
Matches
References