Bangladesh national team coach Lodewijk de Kruif wants to forget his pay row with the Bangladesh Football Federation and move on with the forthcoming assignments.
Kruif arrived on Saturday after ending his four-month long absence and immediately met the BFF president Kazi Salahuddin with his assistant Rene Koster to discuss their future plan of actions.
‘We have discussed various matters which also includes our payment issue. But I don’t want to disclose it because this is very much a personal matter,’ Kruif told reporters after the meeting.
‘At the moment we are happy with the assignment and we want to utilise the opportunity.’
The Dutch duo remained unpaid since January, which had earlier prompted them to go public about the issue.
After repeated assurance from the BFF, assistant coach Koster returned in May but head coach Kruif did not budge from his position.
Kruif finally decided to return once the BFF managed to give him an assignment for the Asian Games, scheduled in South Korean city Incheon from September 19 to October 4.
‘Our main target is the Asian Games. Although the time is very short we have to start the preparation to pull off a positive result there,’ said Kruif.
BFF general secretary Abu Nayeem Sohag, who was present during the coaches’ meeting with Salahuddin, said there were not too many discussions about the unpaid wages.
‘Coaches requested us to arrange some practice matches before the Asian Games and our president told that he will try to arrange one or two,’ said Sohag.
‘We had very little discussions about their unpaid wages. We will be paying their 60 to 70 per cent of wages within the next two to three days and they will also get the remaining money shortly,’ Sohag added.
‘Our president requested them to forget about the past and give their best for the national team for the forthcoming tournaments,’ Sohag said.
‘President also requested the coaches to bring out the best from the players.’
The Dutch coaches will start their preparation for the Asian Games with a practice match at the Bangabandhu National Stadium today.
The selected 25 players of the preliminary squad were asked to report today at the BFF house at 4:00pm before the practice match, which they will play splitting into two groups.
The match has been arranged to give Kruif an idea of players’ actual physical condition before he starts the residential training camp at the BKSP from Monday.
-With New Age input
