Bangladesh and Nepal football governing bodies have come to verbal agreement to play two international friendlies in November in Dhaka with talks ongoing to get necessary permissions and fix the dates in the upcoming Fifa window.
Bangladesh Football Federation had earlier placed the proposal to All Nepal Football Association who expressed its willingness over the last week to utilize the international window scheduled for November 11-19.
“BFF and ANFA will work closely this week to sort out various details like match dates, flight options for Nepal team, local protocol of quarantine after arrival in Dhaka, isolated training, training venue, etc,” stated a media release from the BFF Saturday.
Kazi Nabil Ahmed, BFF’s national team management committee chairman, said, “They (ANFA) got permission from their government to start training activities that indicates they can travel. We are also communicating with the ministry to see the guidelines we have to follow. If everything goes well, both games will be played in Dhaka.
“The discussions are there when we can start practice camp and get our coaches here. The camp could be called within seven to 10 days. The coaches (head coach Jamie Day and assistant coach Stuart Watkiss) may also arrive at the end of the month,” added Nabil, who was elected BFF vice-president for the fourth consecutive time at the October 3 Election.
With the exception of nearly a dozen players of Bashundhara Kings, the other national booters have been out of team practice since the first batch of Covid-19 cases surfaced in Bangladesh in mid-March.
Nabil admitted that the preparation time is not enough.
He explained, “It’s not about winning or losing. The purpose is to start playing.”
Day at the end of July announced a 36-man preliminary squad for the World Cup and Asian Cup joint qualifiers, previously scheduled for October-November but which later got postponed along with the practice camp.
The British tactician informed that the squad would be unchanged.
“I am looking forward to getting back working with the players,” said Day from the UK.
He replied to a query, “The time is short. I am just hoping we don’t get any injury. It (performance) is not the main concern for me. I would like to win the games but it’s about getting the players fit.”
Bangladesh played their last international game against Burundi in the semi-final of the Bangabandhu Gold Cup 2020 on January 23.
The scheduled World Cup 2022 Group E fixtures of the year were repeatedly postponed due to Covid-19.