Saintfiet angry at 'unprofessional' approach

Bangladesh's newly-appointed head coach Tom Saintfiet yesterday showed anger and frustration regarding the “unprofessional” approach of five national players who took part in an inter-service game without permission from the Belgian tactician. The five footballers – midfielders Mamunul Islam and Sohel Rana, forward Jewel Rana, defender Rayhan Hasan and goalkeeper Shahidul Alam Sohel – played for Bangladesh Navy on Wednesday and skipped the national team's training camp at Kamalapur Stadium. Saintfiet informed that he didn't give permission to the footballers in question but the quintet received the green signal from the Bangladesh Football Federation and team manager Iqbal Hossain, thus angering the Belgian coach. “11 players are not here. There is no national team in the world who can prepare six days before a match without 11 players. Six players are coming back from Bhutan, for what I understand, and five players are not here on training so it’s very unprofessional. Do you know why they are not in here? I know but I didn’t give permission, I don’t agree,” said a visibly irritated Sanitfiet. The 43-year-old coach continued, “What steps I can take? I have contract for two months and I need to win against Bhutan. I can kick 10 players out and then I lose 5-0 against Bhutan, what do I do. This is responsibility for Bangladesh and they are not professional. I’m professional coach. I would select players, players must be in camp. I didn’t give permission for anyone, very simple.” On the other hand, Bangladesh manager Iqbal said, “We [BFF] gave the players permission to play. We tried to make the coach understand but may be he didn't realise the situation.” Bangladesh will play their first match of the Asian Football Confederation Cup Qualifiers Play-offs against Bhutan on September 6 at Bangabandhu National Stadium. Meanwhile, due to the upcoming AFC Under-16 Women's Championship 2017 Qualifiers, starting from Saturday at BNS, the men in red and green had to practice at the astro-turf of Kamalapur Stadium. Regarding the change in practice venue, Saintfiet said, “Very big difficulties. Every national team must train in this stadium (BNS) where they have to play but AFC don’t allow us to train here because of a women's competition. “I can train on club ground at Sheikh Jamal [Dhanmondi Club] but it is a small pitch. It also has grass but not real size for a match. So what can I do, very unprofessional. I need good pitch, without injuries, and with big size.”