AFC postpones joint qualifiers

The Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) yesterday postponed the Bangladesh national football team's remaining four fixtures of the Joint Qualifiers of the 2020 World Cup and 2023 Asian Cup, scheduled for March and June, after the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) communicated a proposal to postpone the Preliminary Qualifiers Round 2 fixtures following the outbreak of coronavirus.

There had been a possibility of postponing World Cup and Asian Cup Qualifiers after the AFC postponed fixtures of the AFC Champions League in West Zone on Sunday and the game's governing body in Asia sent the postponement proposal to all its member associations yesterday after consulting with the world game's governing body FIFA.

Bangladesh were scheduled to host Afghanistan on March 26 in Sylhet before travelling to Qatar to play their away match on March 31. The boys in red and green were also scheduled to host India and Oman on June 4 and 9 respectively to complete the Round-2 fixtures of Group E in Asia. 

In a statement sent to the BFF on Monday, AFC stated, "We have taken note of issues and various travel restrictions affecting the smooth delivery of upcoming preliminary joint qualifiers second-round matches scheduled to be played in March and June 2020.

"Following discussions with several participating member associations (PMAs) of the ongoing emergency meeting recently organised for the calendar for national and club competitions, AFC has consulted with FIFA and collectively agreed to postpone the upcoming matches of the preliminary joint qualifier round-2."

BFF has also accepted the AFC proposal after discussing the matter with its relevant committees such as medical, national teams' management and let the AFC know about their decision immediately.

"After getting the proposal from AFC, we talked to all BFF authorities concerned and accepted the AFC proposal of postponement as Bangladesh also found people affected by coronavirus," said BFF general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag at a hurriedly arranged press conference at the BFF House yesterday.

However, participating member associations may still play matches in March or June upon mutual agreement, provided that the safety and health concerns of all individuals involved meet the required standards, subject to prior approval by FIFA and AFC.

But the BFF don't want to take any risk to arrange the matches under the required standards set by FIFA and AFC.

"Who will take the responsibility if anything is raised centring the match?" questioned Shohag, adding that the FIFA and AFC will discuss further detailed of the postponed fixtures and communicate with PMAs in due course.

Five more national sports federations -- cycling, volleyball, archery, golf and basketball -- had also postponed its international tournaments, which were supposed to take place in Dhaka to celebrate the birth centenary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Fate of cricket's Mujib Borsho celebrations uncertain

All March 17 celebrations marking Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's birth centenary have been postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak, Awami League sources told The Daily Star last night. The decision was made at a meeting of the AL Central Executive Committee at the Gono Bhaban in presence of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) had plans in motion to arrange a concert involving Bollywood musician AR Rahman on March 18, followed by two T20Is between Asia XI and World XI on March 20 and 21 respectively to commemorate the occasion.

In light of the AL decision, those events are now uncertain too.

"BCB President Nazmul Hassan will talk to the authorities concerned tomorrow [Tuesday], and we will have a clearer picture about it in the next two days," BCB Media Committee Chairman Jalal Yunus told The Daily Star last night.

BCB enacts one-ticket-per-person rule

With controlling the spread of coronavirus in mind, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) yesterday moved to reduce the crowd size in the ongoing two-match T20I series between Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, decided to restrict the sale of tickets to one per person.

"We have decided to sell only one ticket to each person during the two T20Is against Zimbabwe. The government has given directives to discourage public gathering and following that we have taken this initiative,'' said BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury to the media yesterday.

Bangladesh on Sunday announced the first confirmed cases of coronavirus as three people tested positive.