Cabrera wants to be competitive in SAFF C’ship

Bangladesh football team's head coach Javier Cabrera claimed his team are in very good shape and, given good preparation, can be competitive and make things difficult for other teams in next month's SAFF Championship.

The regional apex football tournament will take place from June 21 to July 04 in Bengaluru and the men in red and green will play a FIFA friendly as part of the build-up in Cambodia on June 15.

Speaking to reporters at the BFF House yesterday, Cabrera said his team wants to achieve something important for the country.

"The team is excited, the players are excited and the coaching staff is excited. We believe we can achieve something important and give to the country," the Spaniard said, while avoiding to set any specific target for his team.

"We will go game by game and be competitive and by being competitive, we know we can make things difficult for everyone," the 39-year-old coach said, adding that teams like Kuwait entering the fray will add new challenge for the team.

BFF vice-president Kazi Nabil Ahmed informed that the team will have their training camp at the Bashundhara Kings Arena before flying to Cambodia, and will leave its capital Phnom Penh for Bengaluru on June 16.

Meanwhile, the BFF official, who is also the vice-president of Bangladesh Olympic Association, said they are trying to convince the BOA to include men's football team in the upcoming Asian Games contingent.

BOA, in an executive committee meeting on Saturday, decided to not send the men's team, citing 'a lack of performance' despite the fact that the men's team made it to the knockout rounds of football competition for the first time in the last edition held in Indonesia in 2018.

"We are having talks with the BOA to have our men's team in the Asian Games in Hangzhou," Nabil said. "I spoke with the BOA president yesterday [Saturday] evening and told him that the men's team, too, needs to be sent."