President of Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) Kazi Mohammad Salahuddin on Wednesday ruled out any uncertainty over Bangladesh’s home match of the FIFA World Cup/AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers against Australia in Dhaka billed for November 17.
Talking to UNB in the afternoon, the BFF boss dismissed the media reports as rumour and baseless, saying, “The situation is quite different in football and cricket. The Australian government or Australian Football Federation can’t cancel any match for any reason. Only FIFA or AFC can take decision if the situation demands so.”
The match with Bangladesh is very important for Australia to qualify for the 2018 Russia World Cup Football, he said, adding that they have no scope for taking risk by boycotting the match.
About possible shifting of the match to a neutral venue, the BFF chief said, “We played our away match in Perth. Now, home is our right, so we can’t go for any neutral venue.”
If Australia boycotted the match at their own risk, then they will loss the match points. Besides, they will have to face financial penalties, he said.
Bangladesh lost by 0-5 goals in their away match against four times World Cup playing and Asian champions Australia in Perth early this month.
The uncertainty over the Bangladesh-Australia World Cup qualifying football match arose after Australia’s this month’s scheduled cricket tour of Bangladesh was put on hold for security reason due to militant threat and following the killing of an Italian national in Dhaka on Monday.
Earlier on Tuesday, Australian media reported that their Football Federation Australia (FFA) is closely monitoring the situation in Bangladesh, but did not make any comment to shift the high profile football match from Bangladesh to a neutral venue.
