‘There was no social distancing’

"There was no social distancing today" is what Bangladesh coach Jamie Day said when asked about the turnout of spectators for Friday's FIFA international friendly against Nepal which Bangladesh won 2-0.

The coach praised the support that his team got but did not hesitate either to imply, even on a lighter note, that the first international fixture in the country since the start of the pandemic could have been better organised as the dangers of Covid-19 still loom large all over the world.

The Bangladesh Football Federation sold 8,000 tickets for the match -- one-third of the capacity of the venue -- but there were a far greater number that watched the match from the stands.

"There was a lot of enthusiasm regarding this match and there were long queues in front of a few gates. So our security personnel could not stop some people from entering even after all the 8,000-capacity was filled up. This happened at the Abahani and Mohammedan galleries," BFF general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag told The Daily Star.

According to the BFF spokesman, there were around 350 security personnel deployed for this match and it was ensured that the entrants were wearing masks and their hands were sanitised on entry. There were markings, too, at the galleries to ensure physical distancing, which were largely ignored.

The BFF spokesman said they would try to be more cautious regarding this issue in the next match on Tuesday.

"We only realised at the last moment about the enormous demand to watch this match, which caught us a bit off-guard," Shohag said. "But we will try to ensure more discipline in the next match by opening the gates early, installing more barricades and deploying more personnel to ensure physical distancing inside the venue."