Match cancelled due to UAE's absence

Bangladesh's opening Group E match of the AFC U-16 Championship Qualifiers was cancelled yesterday after the opposition team, the United Arab Emirates, withdrew from the competition due to political crisis with Qatar.

Bangladesh team management was officially informed of the cancelation yesterday morning even though no Qatari representative was present at the managers' meeting on the previous day.

“We were ready to play the match against UAE in the afternoon but we were informed in the morning that the match would not take place due to the absence of Qatar,” head coach Anwar Parvez Babu informed over phone.

"We missed an opportunity to gather experience of playing against a strong team like UAE, but we didn't have anything to do about it," added Anwar Parvez. 

The withdrawal of UAE means the group has been reduced to a three-team affair, with hosts Qatar and Yemen being the other teams.

Bangladesh players trained in the afternoon and then watched day's second match between Qatar and Yemen.

Bangladesh will take on Yemen tomorrow.

Ten group winners and five best second-placed teams will advance to the finals to be played in Malaysia next year.