Sports Reporter:
Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) on Saturday initially selected 30 booters to form a national team for a FIFA International friendly match with Cambodia and to compete in the eight-nation South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship in India.
Bangladesh will play a FIFA International Tier -1 Friendly match against Cambodia on June 15 in the Southeast Asian country and will compete in the 14th edition of the SAFF Championship 2023 sched-uled for June 21 to July 4 at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in the Indian city of Bengaluru.
Earlier, Bangladesh was drawn in Group B of the (SAFF) Championship with invitee Lebanon, two-times champions Maldives and Bhutan while Group A team comprises eight-time champions India, in-vitee Kuwait, Nepal and Pakistan.
In the Bangladesh preliminary squad, maximum eleven players were taken from league champions Bashundhara Kings, seven players from league runner-up Dhaka Abahani Ltd, three each from Dhaka Mohammedan SC and Fortis FC, two each from Sheikh Russel KC, Police FC and Muktijoddha Sangsad KC.
Selected players have been asked to report to team manager Ameer Khan on Sunday (June 4) at 6 pm at Dhaka’s Regency Hotel to join the week-long residential training camp of the national team, beginning on the day.
Selected players are: Anisur Rahman, Topu Barman, Bishwanath Ghose, Rimon Hossain, Tariq Raihan Kazi, Tutul Hossain Badsha, Sohel Rana, Masuk Mia Zoni, Rakib Hossain, Sumon Reza, Sheikh Morsa-lin from Bashundhara Kings; Sahidul Alam Sohel, Foysal Ahmed Fahim, Rahmat Mia, Sohel Rana, Ele-ta Kingsley, Alamgir Molla, Mohammad Ridoy from Dhaka Abahani Ltd; Sahriar Emon, Sazzad Hossen, Mehedi Hasan from Mohammedan SC; Jamal Bhuyan, Mohammad Ibrahim from Sheikh Russel KC; Rabiul Hasan, Isa Faysal from Police FC; Mojibor Rahman Jony, Mitul Marma, Rafiqul Islam from Fortis FC; and Mehdy Hasan Srabon and Aminur Rahman Sojib from Muktijoddha Sangsad KC.
In the SAFF Championship, hosts India will play their arch-rivals Pakistan in one of the two opening day’s matches at 7:30 pm local time on June 21 while invitee Kuwait will face Nepal in the other inaugu-ral day’s match at 3:30 pm.
Bangladesh, the champions of 2003, will start their campaign taking on favorite and top seed Lebanon on the following day (June 22) at 3:30 pm at the same venue.
Bangladesh, who did not overcame the group stage barrier in the last five editions, will play Maldives on June 25 at 3:30 pm and meet Bhutan on June 28 at 7:30 pm in their remaining group matches
After the round-robin league matches, top two teams from each groups, will play in the semifinals on July 1 while the final is billed for July 4.
