Pakistan has expressed its willingness to play two friendly matches against Bangladesh in Dhaka and has requested the Bangladesh Football Federation to find a window, officials said on Tuesday.
The BFF said that it has given a positive reply to its Pakistan counterpart and indicated that the matches might be held in August, after Eid-ul-Fitr. BFF president Kazi Salahuddin said that they
are now planning to
hold the matches on August 13 and 16, though it is yet to be decided
if both matches will have the status of international friendly.
‘We gave them a tentative schedule and are now waiting for their reply,’ said Salahuddin, adding that the national team’s Dutch head coach Lodewijk de Kruif is against the idea of pitting the countries against each other in friendly matches.
‘Pakistan are one of the major contenders for the SAFF championship, so he [Kruif] does not want our players to be exposed to them [Pakistan] before the tournament, so we are planning to put our national side in one match and one of our club sides in another match,’ added the BFF president.
De Kruif met Salahuddin after Tuesday’s training session and briefed him about the progress of the footballers.
‘He was not satisfied with the fitness level of the national players,’ said Salahuddin. ‘He had to start from the beginning as the players did not maintain their fitness after the AFC Challenge Cup qualifiers in March.’
-With New Age input
