FIFA Fussball-Weltmeisterschaft Deutschland 2006
Tajikistan first up for Bangladesh
Sports Reporter
Bangladesh will take on Tajikistan in the Asian zone qualifying round for the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals to be held in Germany. The matches of the Asian qualifying round will be played on a home and away basis by 14 member associations of the Asian Football Confederation with the 7 winners over both legs going through to join the top 25 Asian national associations in the Preliminary Draw proper, which will take place in Frankfurt, Germany on December 5. The matches are to be completed by November 29. Bangladesh's first leg game is at home. Going by FIFA's latest world rankings, Bangladesh should sail past their central Asian opponents. Bangladesh are ranked 147th while Tajikistan are a distant 180th. Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF)'s team management committee led by Kazi Salahuddin will meet today to discuss about when to start the national team's training camp for the World Cup qualifiers. "We don't have enough time to prepare. The team management committee will decide when the national camp will be called," said BFF general secretary Anwarul Haq Helal yesterday. He also informed that a local coach will be appointed for the two matches. "We are trying to bring a foreign coach for the national side but it will not be possible within this short time," Helal said. The qualifying engagement of the national team is bound to effect the season's major domestic competition, the Dhaka Premier League, which was scheduled to start from mid-November. However, with top players of the country joining the national camp soon, the clubs won't be too pleased with the latest development. Bangladesh's participation in the World Cup qualifiers comes after a lot of controversy and uncertainty. The SA Sultan-led federation in a surprise move had decided against taking part terming the venture as a sheer waste of money. But they had an even more surprising change of heart following the insistence of none other than FIFA president Blatter who told Sultan to make sure that Bangladesh entered its name in the qualifying round. Since first playing in the qualifiers in 1984 for the finals in Mexico in 1986, Bangladesh have competed in every qualifying round.
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