DHAKA, June 29, 2020 (BSS)- The Bangabandhu SAFF Championship, which was scheduled to be arranged in September in Dhaka on occasion of birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, has been postponed till next year due to coronavirus pandemic.
“We had a virtual meeting today the general secretaries of all seven member associations[Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Bhutan] to discuss regarding the calendar of this year’s SAFF … and we all through the consensus took the decision to postponed this year’s SAFF Championship till 2021 … we’ll deliver the confirm date of the championship within some days after negotiating among our association members,” said the SAFF general secretary Anwarul Haque Helal through a video message today.
“We have also discussed regarding the three youth SAFF Championships, which was also scheduled to be organised this year and in the basis of the discussion, we’ll again sit with all in September with this issues .. we’ll access the Covid-19 situation and if the situation permit, we’ll host one or two youth tournaments in December and if not permits we’ll also postpone the youth tournaments for the next year, Helal concluded.
The South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) is scheduled to organise the U-15 Boys’ SAFF Championship in August, U-15 Girls’ SAFF Championship in September and U-19 Women’s SAFF Championship in October.
Bangabandhu SAFF Championship was scheduled to take place in Dhaka in September to mark the birth centenary of Father of the Nation but the coronavirus pandemic has forced the government to cancel most international tournaments organised to commemorate the birth centenary, as well as postpone domestic sports activities since March.