The Bangladesh Under-16 women’s football team vowed to give their best and put up a positive display in the forthcoming AFC U-16 Women’s Championship 2015 Qualifiers scheduled to kick off this Wednesday at Bangabandhu National Stadium.
The Bangladesh U-16 women’s football squad has been trimmed down to 23 members from the initial 42 following the conclusion of the 50-day long camp and head coach Golam Rabbani Choton believes his charges are prepared to fight it out against the opposition. “We trained twice a day at the BFF artificial turf and grafted hard during the training camp running 50 days. We also played a few practice matches against Narayanganj and the national team and it has boosted our confidence,” Choton told the media at the BFF House yesterday.
The U-16 women’s team played a total of six practice matches - two against Narayanganj and four against the national side. The youngsters defeated Narayanganj 2-0 and 5-0 besides winning and losing twice each against the national team.
“We had the tendency of losing the game even before taking the pitch but this time we will not give an inch to our opponents and fight till the end. Hopefully we will beat the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and after that we will give our 100 percent in order to go to the second round as the second team of the group,” said Choton.
Captain Monika Chakma was also adamant about doing well.
The sponsors of the event were also introduced by the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) during the press conference yesterday. KFC and Amber Group are the sponsors while Channel 9 is the media partner who will telecast all the games live. KFC’s area manager Charles Mithun, sales and marketing director of Amber Group Mohammad Akhtaruzzaman and Channel 9’s head of programme Tanvir Khan were present on the occasion.
BFF general secretary Abu Naeem Shohag and women’s wing deputy chairman Mahfuza Akter Kiron were also present and revealed the details of the event. Among Tk16.5m that will be required to host the event, AFC will provide Tk6m.
Bangladesh will begin their campaign against Jordan this Wednesday before facing the UAE, India and Iran on October 17, 19 and 23 respectively.
