The Bangladesh national football team left for Saudi Arabia this afternoon to prepare for the India match in the Asia Cup qualifiers. Senior defender Rahmat Mia could not join the team due to visa complications.
National football team manager Amer Khan said, “The airline authorities waited for Rahmat until the last moment of boarding. The federation had been contacting Saudi Arabia for a visa since morning. When we were waiting to board the flight after boarding and other formalities, Rahmat’s visa arrived. It was not possible to board at that time.”
Spanish coach Javier Cabrera is working on a preliminary squad of 30 for the India match. Except for two expatriate footballers Hamza and Fahmidul, 28 have practiced in Dhaka for the last four days. All of them except Rahmat have left for Saudi Arabia. BFF General Secretary Imran Hossain Tushar said that Rahmat will be sent to Saudi Arabia today or tomorrow.
The Saudi Football Federation has arranged visas for the Bangladesh team. Although the flight is today, there was uncertainty about the visas of one of the coaching staff and a few footballers until yesterday. After various communications, visas were granted to others except Rahmat until this morning. Rahmat’s visa was also granted in the end, but he could not join the team. Regarding this, manager Amer Khan said, “The Saudi Federation has also granted visas to the Bangladesh team in the past. Although our federation has constantly urged us on this matter, it is in their hands. Basically, their working hours are also different during the month of Ramadan.”
Although the flight is scheduled for 1:55 pm, the plane is still on the runway as of this writing. The plane will go from Dhaka to Chittagong. It will pick up passengers there in an hour and then depart for Jeddah. From Jeddah, the Bangladesh team will then go to Taif. It is a 2-3 hour road trip there.