Rahmatgonj MFS

The Bangladesh Championship League table of 2014 gave Rahmatganj MFS its way back into the top flight. Twice since, in the 2019–20 and 2021–22 seasons, the club has reached the final of the Federation Cup without lifting it.

The club's own beginnings sit further back and in a different register. It was set up in January 1933 in Old Dhaka by Abul Kashem Shaheb and other residents as a social service body, with football added as one of its activities only afterwards. Long before any of the cup runs, Rahmatganj built a base in the lower divisions: the Dhaka Third Division League in 1963, the Second Division the year after, and the First Division twice, in 1994 and 2005. Golam Sarwar Tipu and Sultan Ahmed played for the club out of that era, part of a Bangladeshi international contingent that gave Rahmatganj a name before it had a top-flight trophy to show for it.

None of that history has translated into a fixture with a name attached to it. What the club has instead is a habit: turning up against Dhaka Mohammedan SC or Abahani Limited Dhaka in a cup tie and playing the spoiler, a smaller side from Munshiganj with enough nerve to knock out the two clubs that have dominated Bangladeshi football for generations.