BFF to write to AFC

While not yet completely ruling out the possibility of hosting Afghanistan in a World Cup qualifying fixture, the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) is making arrangements to send the national team to Kathmandu to play a tri-nation tournament involving hosts Nepal, Bangladesh and Kyrgyzstan U-23 team, scheduled for March 23-29.

A decision in this regard came yesterday after the national teams committee, headed by BFF vice-president Kazi Nabil Ahmed, met with head coach Jamie Day, assistant coach Stuart Watkiss and technical director Paul Smalley at the BFF House. "We informed the AFC in January that we were ready to host the three World Cup Qualifying matches, one of which was against Afghanistan on March 25. Two days ago, Afghanistan wrote to us that they would not be able to play the match in Bangladesh due to the pandemic. They cited that their players from different parts of the world were facing problem to get to one place. That's why they want to play the match at a centralised venue," Nabil said after the meeting."However, we have decided to write to the AFC that we still want to host Afghanistan on March 25," Nabil said, adding that as part of Plan B, they are taking the opportunity to participate in the tri-nation tournament in Nepal but if AFC gives instruction to host Afghanistan on March 25, they would bin that plan. The director-in-charge of Abahani also informed that they are going to give room to new faces in the tri-nation tournament to explore their potential and observe the status of the national team.