Bangladesh Coach Doley Submits List of 28 Footballers for SAFF Championship

Bangladesh head coach Thomas Doley has submitted the names of 28 footballers ahead of the upcoming SAFF Championship. He finalised this list on the very last day for submitting player lists.

The SAFF Championship begins on 5 November. Six countries are taking part in this edition. Although Bangladesh submitted its list within the stipulated time, not all countries could meet that deadline.

A few countries have asked for a few days' time to submit the names of their players. At their request, the deadline for submitting lists has been extended by two days. So it will take a little more waiting to get the full picture of all the participating teams.

Usually, in tournaments of this kind, the preliminary list is of 35 players, and the team is finalised a day before the tournament starts. This is the common rule in SAFF and other international tournaments. But this time SAFF has introduced some variation to that practice.

This time SAFF has given the opportunity to register 50 players. From that list, there was an instruction to finalise the names of 28 by 18 October. Bangladesh submitted its list on time, following that instruction.

However, this system has also created a limitation. If a player is injured during practice or someone's performance shows a deficiency, there will not really be the opportunity this time to replace players as needed, because the path to bringing in someone new from outside the list is almost closed.

On this, Bangladesh coach Thomas Doley said, 'This is SAFF's rule. There is nothing we can do. They told me to give the names by 18 October; I have given them.' It is clear from the coach's words that he has submitted the list in compliance with the rules, although the system is not very comfortable for him.

There is a busy schedule in domestic football too in the coming days. Tomorrow there is a Federation Cup match. After that, six more league matches will be held next Friday and Saturday.

Many of the national team's footballers will take the field in those very matches. If someone is injured there or someone's performance varies greatly, there is still not really an opportunity to change the 28-man list - this is now the main area of concern for the Bangladesh camp.

All in all, although the formalities of submitting the list are over, the real test of preparation is still to come. Coach Doley will have to plan with these 28 players until the tournament starts on 5 November, and the biggest expectation will be that the footballers take the field free of injury.