Coach, players unhappy

Head coach Jamie Day is not happy with the way the training camp is being managed as the national team's scheduled journey to Saudi Arabia for preparation ahead of next month's World Cup Qualifiers was deferred yesterday, hours before the scheduled departure, owing to the unavailability of a quarantine exemption letter from Saudi Arabia government.

"Obviously this is not the ideal preparation for the players. It was disappointing but the credit to the players who are still motivated and hoping to get something sooner than later," Day told reporters after conducting a training session at the Bangabandhu National Stadium.

The coach had cancelled out Sunday's training session so as to make arrangement for departure for Saudi Arabia, but got back to training on Monday morning after being informed that the trip was postponed.

"We aren't lucky compared to other teams going to Qatar or abroad for preparation. It is difficult to get prepared in such a situation. We could have better facilities there, train in better pitches, get to acclimatise with the weather if we could have gone there at right time," said Day, adding that it doesn't make sense to have only two to three days' training if they couldn't leave Dhaka by Tuesday.

Goalkeeper Anisur Rahman Zico told the reporters that all the players were disheartened by the postponement of the journey.

Asked why the BFF confirmed the trip without receiving the quarantine exemption letter, general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag said, "We did everything after getting verbal confirmation about the quarantine exemption from them (Saudi authorities) and they requested us to defer the journey by a day on Sunday midnight."

Shohag, though, informed that they would get the exemption letter by 7:00pm on Monday, but did not receive any letter till 8:00pm when this report was filed, keeping everyone in dark over the fate of the rest of the training camp.

With the uncertainty ever present, Day proposed BFF to make arrangements to send the team to Qatar a couple of days ahead of May 30. The qualifying matches will get underway on June 3.