‘Starting football is main priority’
Bangladesh Football Federation officials and coaches of the national team are looking forward to the two international friendlies against Nepal as a chance to resume football activities in the country instead of thinking too much about the outcomes of the matches.
Bangladesh are scheduled to host Nepal on November 13 and 17 at Bangabandhu National Stadium, which last hosted a local league match on March 15 and an AFC Cup match on March 11. The training camp will start on Friday.
The game's governing local body has already decided to start the new domestic season from late December but the fate of international assignments, namely World Cup Qualifiers, is still uncertain. Under these circumstances, the BFF wants to avail the FIFA window to give the players a taste of football after a long gap.
"To prepare for upcoming World Cup Qualifiers and AFC Cup, we need to play friendly matches. We will certainly play to win the matches but that is not the main objective; rather bringing football back to the ground is the major objective," BFF vice-president and national teams committee chairman Kazi Nabil Ahmed told a virtual press conference yesterday.
He believes they would be able to arrange the matches with the help of all quarters. "We don't know everything and we don't have control over everything. We have to take help from others like sports ministry, health ministry, etc. Not everything will be foolproof, but we will certainly make sure to take initiatives that will reduce the danger," said Nabil. Head coach Day is also looking forward to the occasion.
"We are looking forward to getting back after a long gap. I understand that there was no play in last seven months even though we gave the players training programmes. ...So, it is good stuff that we are going to get football process in next week and play competitive matches. Everyone is looking forward to get back to the training and matches," Day said.
Assistant coach Stuart Watkiss is, however, seeing some challenges in resuming training after a long time.
"There will be few challenges in the camp but I am pleased that every player is looking forward to getting back to normalcy. First, we have to find out where the fitness levels of the players are and then come up with the long sights of technical and tactical sides. It's going to be a quite delicate balance in order to get everything right," said Watkiss.