Bangabandhu Gold Cup
The Bangabandhu Gold Cup is an international association football tournament organised by the Bangladesh Football Federation. It was launched in 1996, but only three editions had so far been played. The third edition of the Bangabandhu Cup was played last year won by the Malaysia Olympic team beating hosts Bangladesh National side.
The hosts are fielding two teams – the National and the Olympic. Bangladesh Senior, Malaysia, Nepal and Sri Lanka are in Group A, while Bahrain, Bangladesh Olympic side, Cambodia and Maldives are in Group B. Bangladesh National team will meet Sri Lanka in the opening match on Friday in Dhaka. The other venue is Jessore.
Considering the strength of the participating nations, the hosts should reach semifinals at least even though their performance in 2015 was poor. We suggested the Bangladesh Football Federation last year to try for at least one leading nation like Iran, Japan and South Korea. But that did not happen. On paper, Bahrain are hot favourites to capture the title.
Finally, we shall advise our coach to go for Spain’s Tiki-taka, as does Barcelona.
Khurshida Haque
Dhaka
