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BFF General Secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag informed these at an emergency press conference at the BFF House in Motijheel on Monday.
“Today (Monday) we have received a directive from Asian Football Confederation (AFC), the highest decisionmaking body of Asian football, to postpone the FIFA World Cup and Asia Cup Qualifiers matches against Afghanistan, Qatar and India in March and June,” Shohag said.
“Complying with the AFC directive, we are not hosting the match against Afghanistan on March 26 in Sylhet and also decided not to go to Doha for playing our away match against Qatar on March 31,” he added.
Besides, Bangladesh, which is scheduled to host India on June 4 and Oman on June 11, may also see the matches held on schedule with mutual understanding between two participating countries, subject to improved situation.
BFF General Secretary further said, “Health security and safety is the first concern, AFC and FIFA are closely monitoring world health issue. They will give us further instruction on a fresh schedule of the matches.”
Bangladesh had two international matches this month (March), one against Afghanistan on March 26 and another one against Qatar in Doha on March 31.
However, Bashundhara Kings will play AFC Cup match against the TC Sports of Maldives on Wednesday (March 11) at Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka.
TC Sports have already arrived in Dhaka today (Monday). The BFF general secretary said, “We are ready to host the AFC Cup match between Bashundhara Kings and TC Sports on schedule as AFC did not give any instruction to postpone it”.
Bangladesh national football team coaching staffs are from UK. They want to return home to stay beside their family in this crisis moment. BFF approved their appeal, “Our coaching staff will go home within short time. We will allow them to spend vacation under this unavoidable situation,” Shohag said.