The opening ceremony of the Prime Minister's Gold Cup National Football Tournament has been postponed by a month and will now be held in September.

Education Minister ANM Ehsanul Hoque Milon told a press conference in Chattogram on Thursday that matches would still go ahead as per the earlier schedule.

He said the ceremony, originally set for Aug 9, was delayed due to recent flood recovery efforts in Chattogram and unfinished board exams in the region, with preparations also running behind.

The prime minister approved the request for a one-month delay, and the ceremony is now set for Sep 9 or 10, held simultaneously across all Upazilas from the Chattogram stadium, Milon said.

The minister said the postponement applied only to the formal opening ceremony, not the tournament schedule itself.

Under the schedule, secondary-level matches at the Upazila level begin Aug 9, and higher secondary matches from Oct 6.

District-level matches start Aug 27 for secondary and Oct 13 for higher secondary, while divisional-level matches for both categories begin Oct 22.

National-level matches will run from Oct 27 to Oct 30.

Milon said this year's tournament would see one of the largest participations in the country's education history, with more than 16 million students from 40,231 institutions taking part.