Football Federation Faces Facebook Fiasco

Earlier this year, an official Facebook page titled "Bangladesh National Football Team" was created alongside the Bangladesh Football Federation’s (BFF) official page. The page regularly posted updates related to the national football teams, both men’s and women’s, and quickly garnered close to 100,000 followers. However, on Saturday, the page fell victim to hacking.

Despite two days passing since the incident, the Bangladesh Football Federation has been unable to regain control of the page. As the page is not verified, the recovery process is expected to take more time.

Sadman Sakib, the Media Manager of BFF, confirmed, "Although the page has 78,000 followers and is not verified, it is indeed the official page of the national football team. Apart from this, we also have a verified page under the name Bangladesh Football Federation."

He added, "Since late Saturday night, we noticed some unexpected videos being uploaded to the official Facebook page of the Bangladesh National Football Team. Upon seeing this, we realized the page had been hacked. Since then, we’ve been trying to contact Facebook’s support team. There are certain procedures to follow, and as the page is unverified, recovering it is taking some time. However, we are optimistic that we will be able to recover it. The Football Federation is doing everything necessary to address this issue."

On Sunday afternoon, BFF’s media department issued an official statement regarding the hacking. It stated that efforts are ongoing to recover the page and expressed regret for any inconvenience caused.

This incident highlights recurring weaknesses in the IT security of the Bangladesh Football Federation, as the organization’s official website was also hacked several years ago. The hacking of the national football team’s Facebook page further underscores the need for improved cybersecurity measures within the federation.