Greetings!
U19 girls are in Bangamata final
Bangladesh U19 women’s national team has made it to the final of the first ever Bangamata U19 Women’s International Gold Cup.
The girls beat Mongolia 3-0 in the second semifinal to confirm their ticket to the final.
Earlier, the Red and Greens became Group B as the champions beating UAE and Kyrgyzstan with attractive football.
Now, the girls have a chance to be crowned the first ever champions of the prestigious Bangamata U19 Women’s International Gold Cup if they can beat Laos in the highly anticipated final on May 3.
Laos made it to the final by thrashing Kyrgyzstan 7-1 in the first semifinal.
Celebrating Fazilatunnesa Mujib’s life and ideals, the competition began with Bangladesh’s first match with UAE on April 22. The Bangamata Gold Cup will become a new addition to Bangladesh’s football calendar.
The Bangamata Gold Cup will be held early each year and the Bangabandhu Gold Cup later in the year.
This tournament is the first of its kind in Bangladesh. And we are hopeful that it will continue to serve as a platform for the development of women’s football in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh to face Laos in FIFA, AFC joint qualifiers
Bangladesh have drawn against Laos in Round 1 of the Preliminary Joint Qualification for FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and AFC Asian Cup 2023. A total of 12 teams are participating in round 1 of the Preliminary Joint Qualification for the two tournaments.
The first leg will take place on June 6 at the New Laos National Stadium, Vientiane with the return leg scheduled for June 11 at the Bangabandhu National Stadium. The winner will join Asia’s top 34 teams in round 2, which will commence in September.
Bangladesh move up 4 places in FIFA rankings
Bangladesh climbed four places in the latest FIFA rankings much to the delight of football lovers. The Red and Greens have moved up to 188th from their previous 192nd accumulating 909 points. Bangladesh has overtaken Guam (on 907 points) in the AFC standings to take up the 41st position in Asia.
The 1-0 win over Cambodia back on March 9 had a part to play in the latest upward movement in the rankings. This positive change, no matter how small, speaks volumes as it is a concrete evidence of the hard work put in by the players and staff. With time, the young Bangladesh team will improve and bring more glory, we hope.
Kiron re-elected to AFC Congress for second straight term
Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) executive committee member and chairman of the women’s football committee Mahfuza Akhter Kiron has been re-elected to the 29th Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Congress for the second consecutive term. Kiron is the only woman from Asia to achieve the feat.
Kiron was elected as a member of the AFC Female Executive Committee (South Zone) in the election held during the AFC congress 2019 in Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur on April 6.
She has also been elected a member of FIFA Council for the second straight term.
I would like to congratulate her again on this achievement and wish her all the success during her journey in the next four years.
AFC GK Level 1 Coaching Course 2019 commences
The AFC Goalkeeping Level 1 Coaching Course 2019 began on April 27. This is the third edition of the course organized by the Bangladesh Football Federation. The six-day course will end May 2. The course has been organized in order to pick talented goalkeepers and train better coaches. A total of 23 candidates from home and abroad are taking part.
Among the selected candidates, two are from India and Kenya while the rest are from various top-level clubs of the country as well as from the districts.
The course features both theory and practical content under AFC guidelines specifically designed to train the goalkeeping coaches to teach basic techniques, plan effective training sessions and understand the role of the goalkeeper coach. The course includes roughly 2 days of theoretical coaching and 4 days of practical training as per the requirements of the modern game.
Young talents join Fortis BFF Academy
The U15 and U18 players, who were picked up through BFF talent hunt a couple of months back, have started their first residential camp at BFF Academy in Dhaka’s Beraid. The camp began with 60 newcomers on April 5.
32 U15 and 28 U18 footballers from across the country joined the camp under seven BFF coaches. Moreover, foreign coaches expected to join soon. The BFF believes that this academy will play a key role in developing the future stars of Bangladesh football.
Women’s Football Day 2019 held
Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) along with the organizers of Bangamata U19 Women’s Gold Cup held a boot camp, Women’s Football Day 2019, for the young girls of Dhaka’s schools on 12th April, 2019. During the boot camp the young girls met some inspiring figures who provided hands on training.
Two such figures were Jessica Hurtado and Katerin Fabiola Castro Munoz, two Colombian women’s national team player, who participated in World Cups.
The BFF invited the female football stars to inspire and motivate the current and aspiring female footballers of the country and to promote the Bangamata U19 Women’s International Gold Cup 2019.
53 national team and 37 BKSP female players were present who received specialized training in separate camps on the Fortis ground.
Moreover, the girls representing their schools took to the field for exhibition matches. After eight thrilling matches the judges picked 11 outstanding girls and honored them with “Best Promising Player” medal and everyone else received a certificates of achievement.
On the following day, Bangladesh U19 women’s team played a friendly match with underprivileged girls from several UNICEF schools at the BFF artificial turf. It was also a part of the promotion programme for the Bangamata U19 Women’s Gold Cup.
BCL second phase underway smoothly
The second phase of Bangladesh Championship League 2018-19 began on April 9, 2019. This season had begun on February 10. A total of 11 teams are participating in the second tier of the country’s domestic football arena. All the matches are being played at the BSSSM Mostafa Kamal Stadium in Kamalapur, Dhaka.
BPL: Second player registration window open
The second player registration window of the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League 2018-19 opened on April 21. The second registration window will remain open from 12pm to 5pm on every working day from April 21 to May 2.
AFC Cup: Abahani at 2nd spot in Group E
Bangladesh Premier League champions Abahani came from behind twice against Indian club Minerva Punjab to secure a point in the second group stage battle of AFC Cup 2019 at Bangabandhu National Stadium, Dhaka on April 7. The draw kept Abahani 2 points clear at the top of group E of the tournament. However, Abahani unfortunately lost their away match against Chennaiyin FC on April 30 which moved them to the second spot in Group E.
Finals of Bangabandhu and Bangamata held
The final matches of the Bangabandhu Gold Cup Primary School Football Tournament 2018 and Bangamata Begum Fazilatunnesa Mujib Gold Cup Primary School Football Tournament 2018 were held at the Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka on April 4.
In the boys’ final (Bangabandhu), Haripur Govt. Primary School of Jointapur, Sylhet beat Dakkhin Kania Khata Primary School of Nilfamari, Rangpur 1-0 to claim the champions trophy.
On the other hand, Nandail Pachmukhi Primary School of Mymensingh beat Patgram Tepur Gari Primary School of Nilfamari, Rangpur by the same margin to lift the trophy of Bangamata Begum Fazilatunnesa Mujib Gold Cup Primary School Football Tournament 2018.
Honourable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina distributed the wards among the winners during the prize giving ceremony at the Bangabandhu National Stadium.
DPR Korea Ambassador visits BFF
DPR Korea’s Ambassador to Bangladesh, Pak Song Yop visited the BFF House on April 27 on a courtesy call. The ambassador promised to give Bangladesh all the necessary support to develop women’s football. He also said he would speak later about long-term development plan of women’s football in Bangladesh.
Class 3 referees go through promotion test
Bangladesh Football Federation organized a two-phase test for the Class 3 referees to upgrade their credentials to Class 2. In the first phase, the referees went through a physical fitness test followed by a written test on April 26. A total of 43 referees participated.
Referees’ first Quarterly Fitness Test of 2019 held
The first quarterly fitness test of referees for 2019, organized by BFF, took place at the Bangabandhu National Stadium April 12. A total of 87 referees participated. The 2nd and 3rd and fitness tests will be held at the same ground respectively on August 2 and December 6.
U12 trials for Gazprom F4F
The concluding events of the UEFA Champions League (UCL) 2018-19, including the final match, will be held from May 28 to June 2 in the Spanish capital Madrid.
Sponsor Gazprom, like every year, is going to arrange the seventh season of the Football for Friendship (F4F) event on the occasion of the UCL final. As many as 3 under-12 footballers (boys or girls) from Bangladesh have been invited to attend.
In this regard, BFF organized a talent hunt to choose a goalkeeper, a defender and a midfielder. The open trial was first held on April 2, and then again on April 7. F4F is the International Children’s Social programme implemented by Gazprom.
The goal is to involve the young generation throughout the world in promoting the most important human values among their peers – friendship, equality, peace and respect for different cultures and nationalities.
Bangladesh may host SAFF U15 Women’s Championship 2019
Bangladesh has a chance of being selected as the host nation of SAFF U15 Women’s Championship 2019 along with Bhutan.
Who the eventual hosts will be – Bangladesh or Bhutan – will be decided later.
The decision was taken at the SAFF Ordinary Congress 2019 in Kathmandu on April 30.
