Bangladesh national team players will receive the Argentina and Nigeria teams at the airport when they arrive in Dhaka next month for an international friendly, the Bangladesh Football Federation said on Saturday.
The BFF has drawn up a detailed plan to welcome the high-profile international teams that boast some of the best known footballers, including two-time world player of the year Lionel Messi.
Argentina will arrive in Dhaka on September 3 while Nigeria will reach on the following day for the September 6 friendly.
Anwarul Huq Helal, chairman of the match organising committee, said Argentina will have a practice session either at the Kamalapur stadium or at the Bangladesh Army Stadium at Banani. The BFF will sell tickets for this training session.
Bangladesh Under-16 national team, who will depart for Kuwait on September 10 to play in the AFC Under-16 Championship, will watch the practice session and some Argentine team members will brief the Bangladeshi youths at the end of the training session.
The Argentine team management will decide who will brief the local boys. It could be coach Alejandro Sabella himself along with some of his charges or it could be a group of players, but the BFF will request them to keep Lionel Messi at the briefing session to inspire the Bangladeshi youngsters.
The Argentina and Nigeria teams will attend a formal dinner in the evening on September 4.
Event management firm Matra has bought the right of that dinner. They can sell maximum 250 seats of that dinner, reserving the rest for the BFF officials, sponsors and the participating teams.
There will be an auction for the guest during the dinner where they can buy different souvenirs and autographed pictures and shirts of famous players.
Both the teams will have a closed-door training session on September 5, the day before the match.
The BFF received Tk 15 lakh from Cambrian College to allow their caravan to follow the Argentina national team bus. The caravan will be branded as the Cambrian College Argentina Fans Club and it will follow the bus carrying Messi & Co, said the officials.
Helal said Coca Cola will pay the BFF Tk 25 lakh for being the official beverage partner while cellular operator Airtel was made co-sponsor for an undisclosed amount.
Meanwhile, a six-member delegation – three each from Argentina and Nigeria – will arrive in Dhaka today to inspect the match venue, practice venues and the hotels where the teams will stay.
Helal said they will show the Bangabandhu National Stadium as the match venue and the Kamalapur stadium as the practice ground while the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel as the place of accommodation.
The Army stadium has been kept as the reserve ground for practice if the delegates do not find Kamalapur stadium as a suitable venue as it is not in a very good condition, said Helal.
The delegation has already inspected the Kolkata venues where the teams will play an exhibition match four days before coming to Bangladesh. They havereportedly expressed their satisfaction over Kolkata’s arrangements.
-With New Age input
