Bangladesh, Palestine in same group
Hosts Bangladesh were pit alongside defending champions Palestine in Group A as the draw for the six-nation Bangabandhu Gold Cup was held through a glitzy ceremony at a hotel in the capital yesterday.
Sri Lanka are the other team in Group A while Group B features three African nations -- Burundi, Mauritius and Seychelles.
The sixth edition of the tournament will be held at the Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka from January 15 to 25.
Palestine are the highest ranked (106) side in the tournament, followed by Burundi (151), Mauritius (172), Bangladesh (187), Seychelles (200) and Sri Lanka (205).
Bangladesh were beaten by eventual champions Palestine in the semifinals of the last edition held in October, 2018 while Bangladesh’s best result in the tournament till date was a runners-up finish in the 2015 edition, where the hosts were beaten 3-2 by Malaysia under-22s in the final.
This is the first time that three countries outside the Asian continent will take part, even though the quality of the teams does not speak volumes on the matter. Although Palestine, the defending champions are a strong side, the other teams, including the two teams ranked higher than Bangladesh, have not had very good results in recent times.
Burundi have won only two out of the 14 matches they played in 2019, losing eight of those while drawing the other four. The island nation of Mauritius, who also have won one of the six matches they played last year, losing the remaining five while Seychelles and have lost seven out of their eight matches and Sri Lanka lost nine out of their 11 matches, with their only victory, technically speaking, coming as a forfeit against Macau in the first round of World Cup qualifiers.
However, the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) high-ups remain optimistic about successfully hosting the tournament, which was originally scheduled to be held last year.
“We are very proud to host this tournament. It was originally scheduled for December last year, but as per the Prime Minister’s advice, we deferred it to January to make it part of Bangabandhu’s birth centenary celebration,” BFF president Kazi Salahuddin said in his speech at the draw ceremony.
The tournament’s rights-holders K-Sports’ CEO Fahad Karim said, “It is difficult to get international teams for a tournament due to their busy AFC and FIFA schedules. However, BFF has done a commendable job in getting these teams on board for the tournament, which will commence the celebrations of the birth centenary of the father of the nation.
Salahauddin thanked Finance Minister AHM Mostafa Kamal, State Minister for Youth and Sports Zahid Ahsan Easel, chief coordinator of the national implementation committee for celebration of Bangabandhu’s birth centenary Dr. Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury, Dhaka North City Corporation mayor Atiqul Islam and other stakeholders for their presence at the programme and contribution towards hosting this tournament.
