SS Steel will sponsor the two international football friendlies between Bangladesh and Nepal Under-23s, the Bangladesh Football Federation announced on Sunday.
The BFF signed an agreement with the company on Sunday with the latter agreeing to bear all expenses for the two matches to be held in Dhaka and Sylhet respectively on August 26 and 29.
BFF vice-president Tabith Awal, also chairman of the national team management committee, and SS Steel chairman Kazi Shakil signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations.
The two FIFA A-category matches against the Nepalese counterparts were organised to give the National U-23 team some much-needed match practice ahead of their Asian Games campaign in South Korea.
Bangladesh were placed in Group B with Uzbekistan, Hong Kong and Afghanistan in the Asian Games.
The BFF said the first match of the series was shifted to the Army Stadium at Banani after the recent downpour left the Bangabandhu National Stadium and Kamalapur Stadium unplayable.
Nepal Under-23 team will arrive today at 5:00pm which will virtually give them no chance to train before their first match on Tuesday.
‘We have fixed the schedule after consulting with Nepal,’ Tabith told reporters at a press conference. ‘We had no other choice because of the flight schedule of the Biman Bangladesh Airlines. However, they are getting enough time to practise before the second match.’
Bangladesh’s assistant Dutch coach Rene Koster said that they will try to put their attention on winning the match instead of using it to do some experiment with their line-up ahead of Asian Games.
Koster urged the spectators to turn up at the stadium to support the home team. The price of tickets for both matches has been fixed at Tk 20.
-With New Age input
