April 17 kick-off in Narail, Natore
The Sheikh Kamal Under-20 National Football Tournament will kick off in Natore and Narail on April 17, with eight divisional teams split into two groups to battle at two venues for the four semifinal spots.
Narail will host the Group A matches, from April 17 to 22, featuring Dhaka, Khulna, Rangpur and Barisal. Natore will simultaneously host the Group B matches involving Chittagong, Sylhet, Rajshahi and Mymensingh.
The semifinals will be held in Cox's Bazar on April 25 and 26 while the final will be held on April 28 at the same venue.
The details of the tournament, initiated by the Bangladesh District and Divisional Football Association (BDDFA), were revealed at the tournament's logo-unveiling ceremony at a hotel in Dhaka yesterday.
Tarafder Ruhul Amin, secretary general of BDDFA, informed that they had scouted 700 players from all 460 upazilas of the country starting from September 2018 and had given them training before selecting 144 players for the eight divisions.
"We have conducted a residential camp of one-and-a-half months for the selected 144 footballers in eight divisions. We will select the best 50 players from this tournament and prepare them through a residential camp for the national level," Ruhul Amin told the programme.
The secretary general of BDDFA further informed that they would introduce a similar tournament for under-18 and under-16 players over the next two years to strengthen the pipeline of national footballers.
The event's chief guest Sheikh Hafizur Rahman, member secretary of Bangabandhu Memorial Trust, said that he was "pleased that the tournament was named after Bangabandhu's eldest son Sheikh Kamal, who was a pioneering figure in not only football, but also cricket, basketball and other sports in the country."
Comments