Day out, Bruzon in

Bangladesh Football Federation has relieved Jamie Day from his role as the head coach of the Bangladesh national football team for the next three months on Friday. The decision came just two weeks before the SAFF Championship.

Basundhara Kings manager Oscar Bruzon will be taking charge of the national team instead of Day for the next two months.

BFF General Secretary Abu Nayem Shohag told The Business Post that they will try to create any scope for Day within the BFF.

“Jamie has been removed from the national team duty for the time being but we are trying to create a scope for him within BFF,” he told TBP.

He also added that Bruzon’s appointment, for now, is for the upcoming SAFF Championship in Maldives and the other tournaments later in October.

“Oscar Bruzon will work as the interim manager for the next two months. He will be our head coach in the SAFF Championship and other tournaments in October,” Shohag informed.

Later on, BFF’s National Management Committee Chairman Kazi Nabil Ahmed said that Day was relieved of his duties due to the team’s poor performances in recent months.

“Jamie has failed to provide expected results in the last two tours. The committee members decided to relieve him of his duties. Oscar Bruzon will work as the head coach for the next two months,” Nabil said.

Day took on the role of the Bangladesh national team head coach on May 2018. Before his appointment, Bangladesh were ranked 197th in the FIFA rankings. And after five years, Bangladesh have climbed up eight steps to 189th in the latest FIFA ranking.

In his most recent assignment with the national team, Day saw his side lose all three matches in a three-nation tournament in Kyrgyzstan. Bangladesh lost 4-1 to Kyrgyzstan, 2-0 to Palestine and 3-2 to the Kyrgyzstan Olympics team.

The five-nation SAFF Championship will kick off in Maldives on October 1. Bangladesh will face Sri Lanka in the opening match of the tournament before facing India, Maldives and Nepal on October 4, 7 and 13 respectively.

After that, Bangladesh will travel to Sri Lanka to play in a four-team tournament, where they will face the hosts along with Nepal and Seychelles.

Bruzon will be in charge during these two tournaments for now.

Nabil explained Bruzon’s appointment saying that he has been the most successful manager in Bangladesh for the last few seasons.

“He is the most successful coach in our domestic circuit in the last two three years. Most of the national team players play under him at Kings. We took the decision depending on that,” he told the media.

Bruzon was appointed as Basundhara Kings manager in 2018 and led the side to two consecutive league titles in 2019 and 2021. He also won a couple of Federation Cups in 2020 and 2021 along with an Independence Cup in 2019. He has also brought some success at the Asian level as Kings just missed out on qualifying for the play-off of the AFC Cup in August.