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Bangabandhu Gold Cup confirmed

Six-nation tourney likely by end of December

Sports Reporter
The long wait for the proposed Bangabandhu Gold Cup is set to be over as the Bangladesh Football Federation
(BFF) is gearing up to hold a six-nation tournament by the end of this year. The BFF president Kazi Salahuddin, who returned from Paris on Thursday after attending a global football summit, yesterday informed that five teams have verbally agreed to participate in the tournament.
"We have invited five teams --Malaysia, Bahrain, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand for the Bangabandhu Gold Cup and they have given us verbal assurance. We would ideally like to start the tournament in the last week of December and end it by the first week of January, 2015," said Salahuddin while talking to reporters at his BFF office.
The tournament had been in the offing for a long time. Not being able to host an international tournament in his first four-year stint at the helm of Bangladesh football's governing body, Salahuddin tabled the idea of hosting it as soon as he was re-elected in May,2013. However, complications regarding the availability of the teams as well as the lack of sponsorship had kept things confined to the planning stage. Now it is believed that a positive response from sponsors has encouraged the BFF boss to finally chalk up the details of the tournament.
"We could have brought two more teams, but that would have extended the time-span as well as increased the budget of the tournament Hence we decided to keep the tournament to within six teams spanning around ten days.
"The six teams, divided into two groups, will play in a league format held in two separate venues - most likely in Dhaka and Sylhet. The two semifinals will also be held in the two venues before the grand final in Dhaka," said Salahuddin, laying out plans regarding the format and probable venues of the tournament.
The BFF boss also informed that the Japan Football Association have agreed to send its Olympic (U-23) team to Bangladesh for two exhibition matches. December 10 has been revealed as the preferred date of arrival of the Japanese team.
With the Bangabandhu Gold Cup and Japanese fixtures slated for December, the national team joined
the camp at Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishthan in Savar yesterday for the two FIFA Friendly fixtures against Sri Lanka later this month. The two matches against Sri Lanka will take place in Jessore and Rajshahi on October 24 and 27 respectively.
26 out of 28 players called for the camp - barring Denmark-based Jamal Bhuiyan and skipper Mamunul Islam who is with Atletico de Kolkata -reported to team manager Amirul Islam Babu at the BFF house in the afternoon. However, nine Sheikh Jamal DC players did not travel to BKSP to continue their training at the club's camp.
"The nine Sheikh Sheikh Jamal players did report but did not immediately join the camp. The club management have requested us to allow their players to join the camp a few days later as they are currently in a preparation camp for next month's King's Cup in Bhutan, and we have considered their request," said BFF general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag.
The national team's camp gets underway today under the guidance of assistant coach Saiful Bari Titu as head coach Lodewijk de Kruif and his deputy Rene Koster are not likely to arrive from Netherlands before October 14.