The favourite venue
It has not been long since the Sylhet District Stadium last hosted an international football match. Less than a year ago, the north-east venue hosted Bangladesh U-23 and Nepal U-23 in a friendly ahead of the 17th Asian Games in Incheon in September. Since then, Sylhet has become one of the favourite venues of the organisers. The last time an international tournament took place in Sylhet was the 3rd Bangabandhu Gold Cup earlier this year. That the different age-level home sides have performed admirably at the venue is largely down to the effort of the organisers and the boisterous support of the crowd.
Extra demands, extra tickets
What the 20m people in the capital could not do, the football lovers in Sylhet did it with pride and aplomb. Most of the matches, domestic or international, in Dhaka fail to attract the full capacity but it is totally a different scenario in Sylhet. All the official tickets, around 20,000, of the grand finale between the hosts and the holders were sold out a day before matchday so the organisers decided to sell extra 3,000 tickets yesterday morning. Even after those 3,000 extra tickets were sold out and the stadium was packed to the rafters, thousands of fans were seen queuing outside the venue hours before kick-off.
Emotional speech
The chairman of the Bangladesh Football Federation’s organising committee, Badal Roy, has been working his socks off for the development of the country’s youth football. The former footballer, who also happens to be the vice president of the country’s football regulatory body, gave an emotional and inspirational speech to the members of the Bangladesh U-16 squad before they went for lunch yesterday. “It is an opportunity for you to accomplish something what your formers could not achieve. Just imagine where you were two months ago and where you are now. It is you who will decide where you will be after two months,” said Badal during his 15-minute motivational speech to the players.
Salahuddin’s wish
BFF president Kazi Salahuddin too had a message for the youngsters. The BFF supremo has never had the opportunity to hand over the trophy to his countrymen in any Saff event during his six-year tenure as the president of the South Asian Football Federation. He was in Sylhet yesterday to watch the game and conveyed his wish to the players. The BFF boss also had words of encouragement for the youngsters.