If everything falls into place, Bangladesh will host North Korea in an international football friendly at Bangabandhu National Stadium on May 14 this year. The east Asian nation expressed their interest of playing in Dhaka as part of their two-week preparation tour ahead of the second round of the 2018 Fifa World Cup qualifiers.
The Bangladesh Football Federation is likely to respond positively to North Korea Football Association’s offer as Bangladesh are also preparing to face Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in their opening two World Cup qualifiers on June 11 and 16 respectively.
The biggest problem, however, that the BFF is likely to face before hosting the North Korea friendly is the schedule of the Manyavar Bangladesh Premier League as the first phase of the top flight will not conclude before May 21. In order to discuss the issue, the national team management committee sat for a meeting at BFF House yesterday.
And according to BFF general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag, North Korea have indeed revealed their interest during the AFC Congress at the end of last month in Bahrain.
“They informed us that they would go on a two-week preparation tour ahead of the World Cup qualifiers and they are interested to play in Dhaka against Bangladesh on May 14. They can only play on this date,” said Shohag.
BFF president Kazi Salahuddin informed that besides North Korea, Bangladesh are also mulling arranging an international friendly against defending Saff champions Afghanistan.
“We are planning to play two international friendlies, probably against Afghanistan and North Korea. They are both good teams. We want to play against strong opponents and we want to play both games in Dhaka,” said the BFF supremo.
“Myanmar and Singapore want to play us at their backyard but we only want to play against those nations who want to come here,” he added.
If the BFF does confirm the friendly on May 14, the premier league will have to be pushed back by a week. Bangladesh’s Dutch head coach Lodewijk de Kruif said, “When it is finalised, of course we need a [national training] camp.
At this moment, the league is going on so we have to pick the players out and stop the league. It’s simple. To me it is not yet hundred percent finalised and when it will be finalised we will make a plan.”
