Booters’ WC qualifying fixtures in Qatar in June

Bangladesh will play their remaining Group E fixtures of the World Cup/Asian Cup joint qualifiers in June in Qatar, a press release by the Asian Football Confederation confirmed yesterday.

According to the fixtures, Bangladesh will play against Afghanistan on June 3, against India on June 7 and their final group fixture against Oman on June 15.

All the remaining matches of the eight qualifying groups will take place at centralised venues during the FIFA window of May 31 to June 15.

China, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Japan, UAE and South Korea will host the remaining fixtures of the rest of the groups.

"Following a process of close consultation with Asia's Member Associations, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has today confirmed the centralised venues for the Asian Qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and AFC Asian Cup China 2023 matches scheduled to take place from 31 May to June 15, 2021," read the AFC press release.

The AFC, however, is yet to confirm specific venues and times for the fixtures.

Bangladesh, sitting bottom of Group E with one point from five matches, lost to Qatar 5-0 away from home in December last year. The booters have played four of their five group fixtures away from home, with their 2-0 defeat to Qatar in October 2019 being their only match at home in the joint qualifiers.

And despite Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) wanting to host the remaining three group fixtures at home, travel restrictions due to the coronavirus meant the decision to host the matches at a centralised venue was prioritised.

Bangladesh were scheduled to host Afghanistan on March 25 in Sylhet. However, the latest fixtures announced for the joint qualifiers rules out possibilities of any home matches for Bangladesh.

Jamie Day's charges will instead leave for Nepal on March 18 to play a tri-nation tournament.