Bangladesh Football Federation logo. COURTESY
Bangladesh Football Federation announced that the national team will take part in a tri-nation tournament in Nepal scheduled for March 23-29, while the fate of their FIFA World Cup 2022 and AFC Asian Cup 2023 joint qualifiers match against Afghanistan on March 25 remains uncertain.
Bangladesh is scheduled to host Afghanistan for its Group E qualifier’s match later this month but the Asian counterparts have refused to play the match in Bangladesh for COVID-19 related travel restrictions and want to play the match at a neutral venue.
Asian Football Confederation asked both federations to decide on a venue but the BFF and Afghanistan Football Association have refused to budge from their original stance. AFC is yet to give the final verdict on the match venue; but BFF has decided to move forward with its backup plan and has said yes to Nepal’s proposition.
‘Two days ago Afghanistan wrote to us that they would not be able to play the match on March 25 in Bangladesh because of the coronavirus pandemic situation… However, we have decided to write to the AFC that we still want to host Afghanistan on March 25,’ BFF vice-president said at the BFF House.‘So, we have decided to move ahead with our plan B of playing the tri-nation tournament in Nepal,’ he added.
However, if AFC instructs BFF to play the Afghan match on March 25, Bangladesh will retract its participation from the tri-nation, informed Nabil. Bangladesh will take on hosts Nepal and Kyrgyzstan Under-23 team in the tri-nation, which will take place in Kathmandu.
BFF will announce the preliminary squad for the tri-nation today and the players will report to the national camp on March 13 and begin their four-day training camp from the following day under head coach Jamie Day. The team will fly for Nepal on March 18. Each team will play one match against each other and the top two sides will play the final on March 29.
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