The executive committee of the Bangladesh Football Federation has asked the development committee to ensure the nurturing process of the national Under-16 team who recently won the third edition of the Saff U-16 Championship at home.
The announcement came within a week since the young Tigers emerged as the unbeaten champion of the six-nation regional age-level competition. BFF president Kazi Salahuddin had earlier promised the same thing in that the U-16 boys will be nurtured in the next four years by football's regulatory body of the country.
As per the decision of the executive committee, the entire U-16 squad will reside at the BFF academy in Sylhet for the next four years.
Following the hour-long meeting yesterday, the committee also hinted that this season's Independence Cup and Super Cup might not take place if the proposed Sheikh Kamal International Gold Cup is held in Chittagong this October. Kolkata giants East Bengal and Mohun Bagan, along with the top four clubs of Bangladesh, will partake in the tournament that will be hosted by top-flight side Chittagong Abahani.
The committee also decided to hold the second-tier Championship League from October 25 this year with the participation of 10 teams, including one from BFF Academy. The players' transfer window will open on October 1 this year and conclude nine days later.
Among other agendas, a Fifa delegate will tour Dhaka soon to inspect the installation process at the Kamalapur stadium. The BFF hopes to complete the installation process by September 28 this year so that they can get three more turfs from world football's governing body in the future.
The committee also decided to extend the tenure of Bangladesh's German goalkeeping coach Christian Schweichler by three more months. Dutch head coach Lodewijk de Kruif's situation is, however, the same as before.
The BFF will also send a “letter of intent” to UK-based event management company Soccer International, informing them to provide £1m if they are to buy the rights of the professional football league and become a partner of the BFF.
Meanwhile, the committee introduced the national team's new jersey after the meeting. The colour of the official home jersey is red while the away one is green.
The meeting was presided over by BFF supremo Salahuddin while senior vice president Abdus Salam Murshedy briefed the media after the meeting.
