BFF jumps the gun on Argentina visit

The Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) kept the country's football fans and the media guessing as it postponed yesterday's press conference, scheduled the day before to apprise the media of the progress of the arrival of Lionel Messi's Argentina for a friendly match 11 years after La Albiceleste's first visit of the country.   

The BFF high-ups on Tuesday said that the Argentine Football Association (AFA) agreed in principle to come to Bangladesh in the FIFA window in June and that it was working to finalise the terms and conditions.

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However, BFF postponed the scheduled press conference yesterday morning, prompting journos to flock to the BFF headquarters to unearth the reasons. BFF executive committee members and the BFF general secretary could not be found at the BFF house and there was also no follow-up statement from the country's football governing body explaining the reason behind the surprise postponement.

The BFF high-ups also did not respond to repeated phone calls.

It was learned that the BFF officials were due to talk to their Argentine counterparts on Tuesday night but they could not finalise anything and were under pressure to have jumped the gun on the matter.

Moreover, Gaston Edul, an Argentine sports journalist for TyC Sports, tweeted from his verified account that there was no communication set up between Bangladesh and the AFA.

Edul's tweet in Spanish, when translated, reads: "There have been no talks between Argentina and Bangladesh to play in June. AFA is not going to advance with anything until it resolves the continuity of [Argenitna coach] Lionel Scaloni. And, it is a priority that Argentina finalises opponents for March friendlies."

The cost for possible arrival of Argentina has been estimated to be around $10m or roughly around 100 crore taka, something that has been heavily criticised on social media, especially in the current economic turmoil.

Argentina had previously visited Bangladesh in September, 2011 and played a friendly match against Nigeria in which Lionel Messi assisted twice in a 3-1 win against the African side at the Bangabandhu National Stadium.

BFF never made the cost behind Argentina's last visit public, but its president, Kazi Salahuddin, told reporters a couple of weeks ago the board had to splurge around three to $4m. BFF still has an outstanding loan of TK 8cr to the IFIC bank.