Maungdaw, Arakan State: The District Peace and Development Council (DPDC) organized a football
match in Maungdaw and were selling tickets to the people, of the town
as well as the people who had come to watch the match, where people can bet by each other which team will win as a gamble place,  a school teacher from Maungdaw said.

The DPDC had called for an auction for the match to get instant funds for DPDC. A close collaborator of DPDC, Yahkub, who hailed from Thet Kai Pyin (Noun Dah Khali) of Maungdaw, won the auction for 0.45 million Kyat, sources said.

The match began on October 24 and people from all over Maungdaw and Buthidaung had come to see the match. Yahkub managed to get the DPDC and the other township authority to hold the auction. He collected per entry fee 300 Kyat and for those who had brought their motorbikes, they had to pay parking charge 500 Kyat per one, the source said.

There were more than 1500 people watching the match everyday.

The match would go on for 45 days and the people from Maungdaw would lose their jobs while, the poor families would face more difficulty for their family's survival.

The football teams were from all the villages of Maungdaw and there was no restriction on joining the match. However, one village had a team for which the villagers had to pay for their need, a villager from Alel Than Kyaw said.

"We collect money for our village football team from the village, not from all but we collect from those who are able to contribute for our team," a village authority from Shewza said.

Some sources said Yahkub would divide the fund after the match got over with all the authority of Maungdaw.

"It is not a football match, but it is a place for those who want to gamble," said a student from Maungdaw.