Bangladesh national football team will get more than two months to prepare for the upcoming SAFF Championship scheduled to be held in September in Nepal as the national training camp will start from July 1.
Bangladesh performed poorly in the last SAFF Championship in Delhi two years ago when they finished seventh out of eight teams. With that in mind the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) has decided to take things seriously this time around and have hired Dutch coaches Lodewijk de Kruif and Rene Koster to take charge of the squad. BFF vice-president and national team committee deputy chairman Tabith Awal announced the training camp after the national team's committee meeting yesterday. The Dutch coaches will arrive in Dhaka before the camp with a two-year contract. Earlier the Dutch duo led the national side to two victories in the AFC Challenge Cup qualifiers. BFF also wants to send the national team to Nepal 12 days before the tournament and plans to play at least four practice matches before the meet. Bangladesh will play two Fifa friendlies against Thailand and Malaysia which are expected to be held in Dhaka and the final two matches could be against Bahrain, Kuwait or UAE.