Gold Cup reduced to four-team tourney
The Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) yesterday decided to hold the sixth edition of Bangabandhu Gold Cup international football tournament from November 21 to 29 in Dhaka with only four nations participating.
The decision was made at an executive committee meeting which was chaired by BFF president Kazi Salahuddin.
The last edition tournament was held with six nations in participation but this time they have reduced the number of participants, citing the unavailability of national teams.
“About 40 national sides are busy with the ongoing Joint Qualifiers for the World Cup and Asian Cup, so we reduced the number of participating teams to four,” said BFF general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag after the meeting.
Shohag informed that Sri Lanka, Mongolia and hosts Bangladesh have confirmed their participation and the last spot will go to either Laos, Cambodia or Timor-Leste.
It could be mentioned here that Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Bangladesh have been playing in the ongoing World Cup and Asian Cup qualifiers. Cambodia are 172nd in FIFA rankings, 12 places ahead of the 184-ranked Bangladesh while Mongolia and Sri Lanka are ranked 186 and 203 respectively. Laos and Timor-Leste are ranked 188 and 198 respectively.
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