No friendly against Iran for booters
The Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) has backtracked from its decision to play a FIFA friendly against Iran over apprehension of being hammered and morale shattered ahead of their 2022 World Cup and 2023 Asian Cup qualifiers match Afghanistan.
The game’s local governing body wanted the Bangladesh team to play a friendly against Iran on September 5 in Doha, but Iran wanted the match on September 7, just three day before the Afghanistan match. That is why BFF decided not to play against the top-ranked Asian nation, BFF general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag explained yesterday.
National team coach Jamie Day, however, said the team had less to gain and more to lose from the match against Iran.
“We will have a friendly, but not against Iran. We want to try continue getting up in the FIFA [Rankings] and playing Iran would have not value in that because they would be too good,” Day said through social media.
Asked whether his charges would not have benefitted from playing against Iran before the Afghanistan match, Day said, “Well, we wouldn’t beat them, so we wouldn’t get any points for FIFA [Rankings]and if we got beaten heavily, it would have affected confidence going into Afghanistan [match].”
The English coach, however, suggested playing against a lower-ranked international team or a club side depending on where Bangladesh will have their camp.
Shohag informed that they initially informed Qatar of their intention to have a 10-day training camp in Doha, which Afghanistan are expected to make their home venue for the qualifying campaign.
“Nepal have expressed their desire to play a match in Dhaka within the next 8 to 10 days, but we are not in a position to host them at the moment and we are working on fixing the opposition -- either a country or clubs -- for friendly matches. Everything will be finalised within a few days,” said Shohag.
The BFF spokesman also informed that the team would attend a one-week camp in Bangladesh before heading to Doha or another city on either August 31 or September 1.
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