The BFF boss said this on Saturday (July 11) afternoon while he exchanged views with senior booters of the national team and Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) clubs at the BFF Artificial turf in Motijheel area of the capital.

BFF vice presidents Kazi Nabil Ahmed and Tabith Awal, and BFF general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag were also present at the meeting.

Some 27 senior players from 12 BPL football clubs participated in the meeting where they asked BFF president to start the country's domestic football as soon as possible.

Bangladesh national team players urged the Bangladesh Football Federation to solve the financial crisis of the players at all-level and start next season’s football league as soon as possible.

Talking to the players, Salahuddin said I wants to start the fitness training of the national team before the arrival of national head coach Jamie Day in mid August .

The reappointed Head Coach of Bangladesh National  Football Team Jamie Day will take the charge in mid August ahead of Bangladesh's next four Joint Qualifiers matches of the FIFA World Cup 2022 and AFC Asian Cup 2023 eyeing on some points from the matches.

Giving emphasis on four World Cup and Asian Cup joint qualifiers, Salahuddin said " Our first match will start on October 8 (against Afghanistan) and you know what to do,  I want to start training to improve your fitness level by this month ". 

"I will talk with national teams committee to appoint a trainer to start fitness trainer " he added.

As per the new schedule proposed by AFC, Bangladesh will host Afghanistan India and Oman on October 8, November 12 and 17 respectively while they will meet the Asian champions Qatar in their lone away match on October 13.

Earlier, Bangladesh started their campaign in FIFA and AFC joint qualifiers with a 0-1 defeat against Afghanistan in the first match in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe on September 10, conceded a 0-2 goals defeat against Asian champions Qatar in the second match in Dhaka on October 10, played to a 1-1 draw against India in their third match in Kolkata on October 15 and conceded 1-4 goals defeat against Oman in the fourth match at the Seeb Sports Stadium in Al Seeb city of Oman on November 14 last year.    

In the five-team Group E, Qatar is now leading the point table with 13 points from five matches while Bangladesh are at the bottom place with one point from four matches. Among others, Oman secured 12, Afghanistan 4 and India 3 points.     

The country’s domestic sports activities including BPL 2019-20 came to an premature closure in last March due to deadly Coronavirus pandemic and  nobody knows when the country's  sports activities will resume.

Local players' livelihood suffered a jolt when the 12th edition of the Bangladesh Premier League was declared null and void by BFF on May 17 due to virus.

The players insisted BFF to sit with premier league playing club authorities and find a solution to clear their due payments so that the players can lead their lives smoothly amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

‘We players are in dire straits as we have no income for more than four months. It is becoming difficult for all of us to bear our family expenses as the players have no other job to do for income,’ said former national team captain and current player Mamunul Islam Mamun.

‘We are also urging BFF to take an initiative to start the next season’s league as soon as possible and to sit with the club authorities to sort out a solution for players due payment as no one has received his full payment from their yet,’ he added.

The Youth and Sports Ministry is yet to determine about resumption of the domestic sports.The State Minister for Youth and Sports Zahid Ahsan Russell, MP,  sat with the top officials of the different federations in an emergency meeting last Thursday and after the meeting the State Minister said the ministry was mulling to resume sports activities subjected to opinion of health ministry.