It was decided in a meeting of the Bangladesh Olympic Association (BOA) on Thursday that the Bangladesh national men’s football team will not be competing in the 2019 Asian Games in China. The announcement of this decision was made public.
According to AK Sarkar, Bangladesh’s chef de mission and BOA treasurer, today’s interview with The Daily Star included the following quote: “The decision to send 17 teams at the [Asian] Games still stands, with the addition of boxing.”
On the other hand, Jamal Bhuiyan and his teammates did not have the same fate as the national women’s team. When asked what the rationale was for not allowing the men’s squad to compete, Sarkar responded that “the decision was based on the performance of the boys” and added that the members of the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) were also present at the discussion.
After claiming victory over Qatar in the first round of the most recent iteration of the Asian Games in 2018, the men’s red and green team advanced to the second round.
The COVID-19 outbreak caused the event to be postponed from the previous year, when it was originally intended to take place. Later, it was decided that the 19th edition of the Asian Games would take place from the 23rd of September to the 8th of October of this year.