Dhaka – A four-member delegates of the English Premier League giants Manchester United Football Club (MUFC) inspected Bangabandhu National Stadium on Tuesday to play a friendly match here in July 2020 marking the birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
MUFC delegation members are- Director of Football Allan John Dawson, Director of Tours and Friendlies Christoffer Laurens Komen, officials Phillip Malcolm Smith and Matthew Charles John.
The MUFC delegates, which arrived here Tuesday morning on a two-day visit, made a courtesy call on State Minister for Youth and Sports Zahid Hasan Russell at National Sports Council, hold a meeting with BFF officials at BFF house and visited InterContinental Hotel in Dhaka for the accommodation, security and other relevant issues.
They also visited Army Stadium at Banani for practice ground on Wednesday.
Famous Manchester United (Man U) is likely to play a friendly match against top players of Bangladesh Premier League Football either on July 23 or on July 30 in Dhaka.
Swapan Chowdhury, one of the organizer and chairman of Antar Showbiz Town Ltd., said, the MUFC delegates have no objection about the local security as the government agreed to provide adequate security.
“We are going to arrange a friendly football match next year named after the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman titled “Bangabandhu Challenge Cup’.
“We are trying to get the full MUFC team for the friendly match. We have discussed on security and other relevant issues with them and they have no objection with our security plans. State Minister for Youth and Sports Zahid Hasan Russell will provide us all sorts of logistic supports,” Swapan added.
When asked about recommendations of MUFC delegates, Swapan replied, “They have several recommendations. They have inspected our ground and observed the security plans. Later, they will check the accommodation and others. They have demanded 3 (three) million Euro. We are expecting a positive result.”
Ministry of Youth and Sports, BFF, Antar Showbiz Town Ltd. and Celebrate Management Group (CMG) of India are jointly working to arrange the friendly match.
Another organizer cum former national footballer Abdul Gaffar said, “The match is likely to be held on July 23 or 30. The full MUFC team will visit Asia during that time; we are trying to get them.”
About their opponents, Gaffar replied, “We will form our best eleven from Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) booters. We will pick up foreign booters to form the best eleven of BPL to play MUFC.”UNB
