Sri Lanka head coach Nikola Kavazovic erupted like a volcano during the post-match conference following their 1-0 defeat in the second Fifa international friendly to hosts Bangladesh in Rajshahi yesterday.
The Serbian’s one minute and 45 seconds stay at the press conference started with good wishes for the Bangladesh side and the warm welcome for their team before Kavazovic burst in emotions and said, “It’s my message to all boys and girls in the world, they should stop playing football because in football, there are many corrupted evil, bad people and if they continue to play football, they will suffer in prime, like my kids.”
“So my message will be to stop to play football tomorrow immediately. Kids, go and play some other sports where you are depending your own destiny. Because in football, bad and evil and ugly and stupid people are deciding your destiny and you cannot do anything,” he continued,
It was assumed that a controversial decision from the match referee was the reason behind the fuming Sri Lankan coach. In the 27th minute of the game, Bangladesh goalkeeper Rasel Mahmud brought down the opponent captain Sanjeewa just outside the box which looked like a straight red card, but the referee only cautioned Rasel.
The journalists present did not get any opportunity to ask any further questions as Kavazovic left immediately. The Sri Lanka manager EB Anthony, however, apologised for his coach’s speech and said the coach was “upset” after the loss and thus exploded in anger.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s Saiful Bari Titu was a pleased coach and was happy with the “entertaining” performance that his charges staged. He refused to comment on his counterpart and rather credited his players for the result.
However, he also said, “Coaches are never satisfied (with the result). I would have been happier had the result been 2-0 or 3-0, but I respect the effort of the players.”
“We didn’t get as many open scoring chances as we got in Jessore. The goal came from a penalty, one of Emily’s headers went just wide off the target. Sohel’s kick was blocked. We played according to plans, the end result, the goals were not many,” he added.
He hailed his winger Zahid and striker Emily and at the same time expressed of grooming more strikers for the future.