Int'l football returns

SOME BRAZILIAN FLAVOUR: Bangladesh football head coach Dido (C) executes a 'rabona' while displaying his free-kick taking skills during a training session at the BUET ground. Yesterday's training also remarkably marked the first time that the national team players practised set-pieces on mobile dummies.

AFC Challenge Cup Qualifiers 2009

Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) is all set to host the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Challenge Cup Qualifiers from Sunday three years after staging the final round of AFC Challenge Cup in 2006.

Cambodia, Myanmar, Macao will participate in the meet along with hosts Bangladesh. The competition forms part of the qualifying round for the 2010 edition of the AFC Challenge Cup where the winners of the competition will advance.

Macao and Cambodia have already arrived in the capital yesterday while Myanmar is expected to arrive in the early hours of today.

Myanmar and Macao will play the opening game of the meet at 3.30 pm while hosts Bangladesh launches their campaign against Cambodia later on the opening day.

State run Bangladesh Television (BTV) will broadcast the contest live from the Bangabandhu National Stadium (BNS).

Tickets for the matches have been priced at Tk.20 for the eastern gallery, Tk.30 for the western gallery and Tk.100 for the VIP enclosures. Students with ID cards will be allowed free entry into the eastern gallery for all matches of the tournament.

BFF local organizing committee chairman Anwarul Huq Helal has expressed delight over hosting a tournament of international stature after almost three years during the launching ceremony yesterday at the BFF headquarters.

"It is a privilege indeed to be able to host the AFC Challenge Cup Qualifiers and we will try our utmost to bring the final round here as well. This tournament holds special importance for us as the champions will qualify for the AFC Challenge Cup and winners of that competition also plays in the Asian Cup 2011," said Helal while keying out the importance of the meet.

Meanwhile BFF has also put up national team t-shirts for sale for the first time in two stalls at the Bangabandhu National Stadium (BNS) and an attempt to market the merchandise through retail outlet "Meena Bazar" is also on.

"This is an experimental move by us as it is the first time we are doing this and it is a popular practice in other countries. Hopefully fans will attend the matches with the national team t-shirts and inspire us to win," said Helal.

Helal also informed that BFF has received financial support from Citycell, Nokia, Premier Bank and Aamra Network to defray other expenses apart from the central expenses which are borne by AFC.

To make the tournament a success BFF has carried out an extensive publicity over the last few days, which included decorated horse-drawn carriages, leaflets with tournament fixtures at different parts of the city.

BFF has also decided to hand over the unclaimed car of the Super Cup prize to a lucky spectator through a lottery of entry tickets of the opening day's matches of the AFC Challenge Cup.