FIFA president due on Oct 16

FIFA president Gianni Infantino will arrive in Dhaka on Wednesday on a two-day ‘goodwill visit’, informed Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) officials yesterday.

The 49-year-old supremo of world football’s governing body will be arriving from Mongolia on Wednesday evening and will leave for Laos on Thursday afternoon, along with his entourage which will include deputy secretary general Matthias Grafstrom, chief of communications Onofre Costa, director of member associations of Asia and Oceania Sanjeevan Balasingam and president’s office manager Federico Ravinglione.

BFF president Kazi Salahuddin said, since this is a ‘goodwill visit’, they will try to highlight the country’s footballing status as there will be no specific agenda for the tour.

“His visit is very important for us. He will see for himself the activities we are undertaking in football development. However, since this is a goodwill trip, it will not be appropriate for us to make any demands to him. However, if things come up during our discussion, we will talk about it,” Salahuddin told reporters.

Kazi Nabil Ahmed, vice-president of BFF, informed that the FIFA president will pay a courtesy call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday morning.

“FIFA president Gianni Infantino will have discussions with BFF executive members where we will share our status regarding FIFA’s vision and goal.

Then on Thursday morning, he will pay a courtesy call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the Prime Minister’s Office on Thursday morning,” Nabil said.

This will be the first visit to Bangladesh by the current FIFA president, who took office in February, 2016.  Joao Havelange was the first FIFA president to visit Bangladesh in 1980 while Sepp Blatter came here twice, in 2006 and 2012.