The Bangladesh Football Federation has decided to withdraw from next week’s AFC Under-16 Championship qualifiers in Kyrgyzstan and has cancelled the Under-16 national team camp, the body announced in a press release on Thursday. BFF president Kazi Salahuddin made the decision after receiving negative feedback regarding the team’s chances in the competition from youth coach Rene Koster.
‘The decision was taken by the BFF president. [Koster] expressed his dissatisfaction with the team’s preparation to the president,’ said development committee chairman Badal Roy.
‘And I could not give him any guarantees that the team would perform well against strong opponents like Oman, Qatar and Kyrgyzstan.’
The BFF is not ready to face another debacle after the senior men’s national team’s disappointing display at the SAFF Championship
in Nepal. With the decision, the BFF will have to pay a fine of $5000 to $8000 to the Asian Football Confederation, according to BFF general secretary Aby Nayeem Shohag.
The Under-16 team’s preparation camp started on August 30 and their first qualifying match, against Qatar, had been scheduled for September 25.
-With New Age input
