Saif Sporting Club and Nofel Sporting Club will take on each other in the final of the Walton BFF U-18 Football Tournament 2019 at the Birshrestha Shaheed Mostafa Kamal Stadium in Kamalapur Tuesday afternoon and amidst the war there will be a battle between two coaches – Kamal Babu and Akbar Hossain Ridon.
Babu was the coach of Nofel during the last season of Bangladesh Premier League from where his side relegated to the second-tier league. Ridon made his debut as assistant coach cum player in the same club, same season and hung up his boots after playing a single game (1-0 win against Mohammedan SC) throughout the league.
Not only having a more experienced coach, Saif also have a better squad and almost half of them have been training together at the club for more than a year while Ridon had only one-week preparation before the meet.
#Saif thrash #Abahani, reach U-18 final https://t.co/N9n41wzRJK
— Dhaka Tribune Sports (@Sport_DT) September 27, 2019
“I worked as his (Babu) assistant coach and learned a lot from him, especially his defensive tactics,” said Ridon. He also added, “Everybody considered us 12th team in the tournament because our senior side relegated from the league but it gave little bit benefit to me. I told my boys from the first day that we want to become champions.”
Babu said at the pre-match conference that their target was not to win the title but rather picking up players for the club for long time and bring them into the senior side.
Saif outplayed Abahani Limited 5-0 in the semifinals while NoFel beat Bashundhara Kings 4-3 on penalties after the stipulated time ended on 1-1.
There was a complaint from Bashundhara regarding the forgery about the age of one of NoFel players named Amin Ahmed after the semis but disciplinary committee rejected the appeal.
#NoFeL edge #Kings to reach finalhttps://t.co/Jc7fPySi7x
— Dhaka Tribune Sports (@Sport_DT) September 26, 2019
BFF general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag explained, “They placed the complaint during the match day. We asked them to show the documents within one day but they couldn’t submit the evidence (by Friday) and thus the disciplinary committee on Saturday rejected the appeal.”