Participating teams thank SAFF for organizing SAFF U-19 Women's Championship
10 December 2021 - Bhutan and Sri Lanka will play in the opening fixture of the SAFF U-19 Women's Championship scheduled to take place in Dhaka from 11-22 December at Bir Shrestha Shaheed Shipahi Mustofa Kamal Stadium.
Ahead of the match, both Bhutan coach Tanka Maya Ghale (Ms.) and Sri Lanka coach Manjula Sirisena (Mr) said they were excited to play the tournament after a long time and thanked the South Asian Football Federation and the Bangaldesh Football Federation for organizing the tournament.
"Due to the pandemic, there were no tournaments taking place in the country. After a long time, we had a league in Bhutan and we were able to select players from that league. We did not have much time to prepare for the tournament, but we will give our best in tomorrow's match," said Ghale.
Sri Lanka coach Sirisena also shared the plight of not getting enough time for training due to the pandemic.
Likewise, host Bangladesh open their campaign facing Nepal in the second match of the day.
Nepal coach Hari Om Shrestha (Mr.) was wary of the home advantage Bangladesh team has over the rest of the participating teams but vowed to put up a tough fight.
"We had to prepare the team in a short time but we shall give a tough challenge to the home team," he added.
Bangladesh coach Golam Rabbani Choton (Mr.), said: "This team has been playing together for a long time now. We have 15 players playing for the national team in this squad. We also have a home advantage. Before this tournament, we played against big teams like Uzbekistan and Iran in the AFC Asian Cup Women's qualifiers. I should say we are a good team."
Likewise, India who have their first match on 13 December against Sri Lanka, are looking forward to a competitive tournament. India coach Alex Mario Ambrose (Mr.) thanked the South Asian Football Federation and Bangladesh Football Federation for organizing the tournament even in these difficult circumstances.
He added, "We have a very young squad and there are seven players in this squad who we were in the U-15 team that won the SAFF U-15 Championship. We want to give a lot of opportunities to players so that develop in the future. All teams are equally competitive and we need to work hard to make a good mark in the tournament. Developing the players is more important in youth tournaments than winning the match. India is hosting the AFC Asian Women's Championship in 2022 and the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, we want football to grow in this part of the region so that matches are competitive and more spectators come to watch the matches."