After some hesitation about taking part in the qualifying round of the AFC U-16 Championship, the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) has finally decided to send a strong team to Kyrgyzstan, and has given coach Rene Koster the responsibility to select the squad through a two-day open trial on August 13-14.

The football's governing body was in hesitation to send the team, especially after the dismal performance in the SAFF U-16 Championship where they suffered a humiliating 5-1 defeat against Nepal to be eliminated from the semifinals. Rene Koster had blamed poor quality of players, among other things, for that debacle and now he has been given the sole responsibility to choose players.

"Rene (Koster) will choose the players from the trial as he was not happy with the players picked for the U-16 SAFF squad,” said BFF's technical director BA Jubair Nipu yesterday.

However, the trial coincides with the two-day nation-wide strike and question has been raised whether they could get enough players for the camp to select the team.

"We had to fix the date on August 13 and 14 as Rene is scheduled to leave Dhaka for the Netherlands on August 14. Besides, we will have to send the list of players to the AFC (Asian Football Confederation) by August 21. That's why we are going to hold the trial on August 13 and 14, but we are hoping that a good number of players from the districts near to the capital will turn up and we have been informing the District Football Associations in this regard," explained Nipu.

Bangladesh have been placed alongside Oman, Qatar and hosts Kyrgyzstan and the top finisher will advance to the final round. The qualifying round is scheduled to be held in Kyrgyzstan from September 25-29.