Bangladesh to host SAFF C’ship

Bangladesh is set to host the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship this December.
“I can assure you 85 per cent at the moment that Bangladesh will host the SAFF Championship. I will confirm you cent per cent in 10 to 15 days,” said Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) president Kazi Salahuddin at a briefing after returning from Malaysia, where he was invited to attend the AFC Audit Committee meeting.
If the SAFF Championship is staged in December, the BFF will have to push the Bangabandhu Gold Cup, scheduled to be held in October-November, sometimes next year.
India was originally scheduled to stage the regional championship involving eight nations. But after the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India and Pakistan closed the door for any sporting relations between the two countries.
With India’s football federation failed to break the ice, Bangladesh got the backing of other participating nations during the AFC Congress in May to host the meet.
Salahuddin had also declared then that Bangladesh would host the SAFF Championship, but the SAFF Committee gave India few more weeks before taking the final decision.
“The SAFF Congress as well as its election will be held in Dhaka in October next with the presence of AFC president Mohamed Bin Hammam. I hope a declaration regarding the Championship will come after the election,” said Salahuddin, who is set to become the new SAFF president ending a long reign of Nepalese Ganesh Thapa.
Thapa has been at the helm since 2000 and could hardly manage to organise a SAFF Championship regularly.
Explaining the reason behind Hammam’s visit to Bangladesh in October, Salahuddin said, “The AFC is pleased with the activities of the BFF and they are very keen on how to take Bangladesh football forward. That’s why Hammam will visit Bangladesh as well as meet the Prime minister.”
The BFF boss informed that the AFC has granted an additional 4,000 dollars per month to run the federation smoothly.
Salahuddin said that if the SAFF Championship was awarded to Bangladesh then BFF executive committee would sit together to take the decision regarding the shifting of the Bangabandhu Gold Cup.
Besides, the BFF is very keen to make sure of the participation of the two Indian giants Mohanbagan and East Bengal who are yet to confirm their participation in October or November.
The BFF chief had a discussion with the All India Football Federation general secretary Alberto Colaco in Malaysia and it was agreed that both clubs would be available in January, not in October-November this year.
“He [Colaco] agreed to send both clubs, preferring to a time slot between January 1-15 and I could not make any word as the BFF executive committee had decided to hold the tournament in October-November,” said Salahuddin adding that the executive committee would sit before Ramadan to finalise the date.

Courtesy of The Daily Star