Sports ministry ‘unaware’ of Argentina’s Dhaka visit

The Ministry of Youth and Sports is officially not aware of the FIFA World Champions Argentina football team's visit to Bangladesh in June.

"Without the approval of the ministry [of Youth and Sports], no foreign team can enter the country. Usually, we determine everything such as the inter-ministerial meeting, security and many things [for the foreign team] but we are not aware of it officially yet, so we don't know the progress about it [Argentina's visit to Bangladesh]. As we are not aware of it, I can't inform you of anything," state minister for Youth and Sports Zahid Ahsan Russel told the media today during the prize distribution ceremony of ITF U-14 Development Tennis Championship at the Sheikh Jamal National Tennis Complex.

The minister, however, admitted that the BFF president Kazi Salahuddin verbally told him about the renovation works at the Bangabandhu National Stadium (BNS) to host the international friendly match in June-July.

"BFF president Salahuddin verbally wanted to know from me, during a meeting of the national sports award, whether we can provide the stadium if they want to hold an international friendly match in June-July," Russel said.

"They did not sit with us officially to learn when the renovation works at the BNS will be completed. They even did not give us any official letter regarding the international match."

Replying to a query, the minister said, "Everything has negative and positive sides. They may think if they can utilise the popularity of the Argentina team in Bangladesh, the country's football may be developed. Another party thinks of whether it should spend such huge money in such a [crisis] situation. We have to think about whether we are in a situation of spending huge amounts of money."

Russel also informed that he, like the others, does not know how such huge expenditure behind Argentina's team would help the country's football.