The euphoria of the recent series win against Nepal, and subsequently a three-place rise in the Fifa ranking, were quickly followed by a 5-0 loss away to Qatar in the World Cup and Asian Cup joint qualifier.
This paved the way for questions to be raised against Bangladesh head coach Jamie Day as many pointed their fingers at the English tactician for the Qatar loss.
Some asked Day to be removed from his post, a job that he has managed somewhat well since the middle of 2018, while rumours were circulating in the football arena that the 41-year old was already on the brink of getting sacked.
Bangladesh Football Federation vice president Kazi Nabil Ahmed though gave short shrift to such talks, lending backing to Day while talking to Bangla Tribune.
The four-time BFF VP said, “I am in the dark with regards to such talks (Day resigning). I don’t know who said what. This is not something that we have discussed. He will not be sacked. This will not happen.
“We played three matches in the last 30 days or so, we won one, lost one and drew one. If we have any observations about the coach or the team, we will discuss it with him. The two parties (Day and BFF) will sit down, discuss and review our work. We will continue to work according to our plans.”
Taking the tough challenge of rearranging the national football team, Kazi Nabil Ahmed, the chairman of the national team management committee, led the resurrection from the front.
Posted by Sports Tribune on Wednesday, 30 September 2020
He added, “Day will be here in January to watch the Bangladesh Premier League. In the first or second week of February we will begin our preparation (for the joint qualifier at home to Afghanistan in March, 2021.”
As a result of the Qatar defeat, the men in red and green dropped two places to 186th, undoing their good work recently.
The chief of the national team management committee though said too much should not be read into the loss against the World Cup host and Asian Cup champion as they had to face exceptional circumstances during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Nabil added the national football team will soon recover the time and training opportunities lost to the pandemic when the new season kicks off, starting with the Federation Cup, scheduled to begin on December 22.
Following the long break due to Covid-19, the BFF high up said their main focus was getting back to playing on the field as opposed to targeting a win or a particular result.
Even then, Nabil informed, that the national booters fought well against Qatar, albeit a bit defensive, and that a couple of goals could have been avoided, thus lending more respectability to the scoreline.
