Bangladesh U-16 team’s head coach Rene Koster is trying to raise his players’ confidence level and targeting to win the title of the SAFF Under-16 Football Championship,
which gets underway today in Nepal.
Bangladesh will start their campaign against Sri Lanka on July 23 while hosts Nepal will face Bhutan in today’s inaugural match.
In Group B, Bangladesh’s other competitor is India, so their first match is very important to move into the semi-finals. Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bhutan will play for the top two places from Group A.
Rene Koster, however, was very confident of making a winning start.
‘Bangladesh are here to win the championship. We really don’t like to lose the matches,’ he said at the pre-tournament press conference at the ANFA Complex on Friday.
‘I recently joined the team. Bangladeshi coaches selected the squad. I am not happy with the quality of the players but I am happy with their attitude,’ he added.
Koster also slammed the ANFA for not providing better facilities to his team.
‘We are not treated well. My five players are sick. One is hospitalised due to food poisoning,’ said a disappointed Koster. ‘We have already told them [ANFA]. They said they will sort out the problems as early as possible.’
-With New Age input
