Argentina-Nigeria Friendly
Many issues still brewing
The Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel yesterday officially asked the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) to not accommodate the Argentina national football team at their premises due to security issues that have arisen for the stay of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the same time.
The Special Security Force of Prime Minister Office had requested the authority of the Pan Pacific Sonargaon not to accommodate any foreign delegates or sports teams during Mahmohan Singh’s stay on September 6 and 7.
“Argentina will now stay at the Ruposhi Bangla and the Nigeria national football team will stay at either Radisson or Westin although it has not been finalised yet,” said BFF vice president Badal Roy yesterday.
However, chairman of accommodation committee and BFF vice president Shawkat Ali Khan Jahangir said that they were still trying to convince both Argentina and Nigeria through the agents to stay at the Ruposhi Bangla and they have already sent them the layout of the hotel.
In another move, the BFF is not going to sign any deal with ESPN in a bid to avoid the clash with local telecast right holder, Independent TV, a sister concern of Beximco Group which is providing finance to host the Argentina-Nigeria match on September 6.
“ESPN is not telecasting the match live,” said BFF president Kazi Salahuddin. “Independent is now the sole rights holder of the Argentina-Nigeria match and others can telecast the match live taking feeds from Independent provided they do not telecast the game in Bangladesh,” said the BFF boss.
ESPN was supposed to produce the match in return for $93,000 and Independent TV will now bear the production cost of the game and they will now appoint a third party to produce it.
There has been a rumour in the sports arena that Argentina would come to Bangladesh later and complete their practice session in India after their first friendly match against Venezuela to be held on September 2. But chairman of organising committee Anwarul Haq Helal ruled out the possibility of Argentina to have a practice session in India.
“I talked to a person of the Celebrity Management Group in India to look into the rumour but they told us that they have such no information about Argentina’s practice in India before heading for Bangladesh,” said Helal adding that the mediator group was supposed to contact with Argentina yesterday in a bid to confirm the practice venue in Bangladesh.
The Argentina inspection team visited Bangladesh on August 21 and was supposed to let the BFF know about their decision on practice venue but the inspection team has yet to inform either celebrity management group or the BFF, who is seemingly worried over the sale of tickets for the practice session as they have little time left.
Meanwhile, Apon Communications, who bought the right of tickets for the practice session of Argentina, has announced that they would sell tickets from today from 30 points in the city. They fixed up the gallery ticket for Tk 1,000 each and VIP ticket for Tk 5,000, said a press release yesterday.
Courtesy of The Daily Star
