Bangladesh Football Federation

On 20 December 2001, Sultan, a member of the BNP-led coalition government, replaced the elected body of the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) led by Harunur Rashid with an ad-hoc committee.^[3] On January 10, 2002, FIFA banned the BFF because the federation violated FIFA and Asian Football Confederation (AFC) laws that only recognize a democratically elected committee to run a member's football authority. The ban was lifted on February 4, 2002, after the original elected committee was reinstated.^[4] Sultan forced his way back into the BFF president's seat after the April 26, 2003 BFF elections, which were deemed to have been held unfairly.^[5][6] In June 2007, FIFA extended the tenure of Sultans executive committee for another year.^[3]

During his tenure as president, Sultan failed to hold district and division leagues on a consistent basis, while the country's top-tier league, the Dhaka Premier Division League, was held only four times from 2001 to 2006.^[7][8][9] Sultan's reign did see some success, with Bangladesh winning the 2003 SAFF Gold Cup as hosts and the introduction of the first professional national league, the B.League, in 2007.^[10] On 15 December 2007, Sultan sent his resignation to FIFA, citing to personal reasons.^[11][12] On 16 December 2007, FIFA rejected Sultans resignation and threatened to ban the federation if an executive member resigned before the 2008 polls.^[13] Nonetheless, despite facing heavy criticism for his previous decision to reign, along with numerous disputes with journalists, Sultan remained as BFF president until the 2008 elections.^{[14][15][16][17]} On 28 April 2008, Sultans tenure as president officially ended, with Kazi Salahuddin taking over his role.^[18][19]