Dooley urges fans to fill empty seats for Pakistan semifinal
Bangladesh head coach Thomas Dooley has appealed to supporters to pack the National Stadium for Saturday’s SAFF Championship 2026 semifinal against Pakistan, after thousands of seats went unfilled in the last home game.
“I have a message. There was maybe 8,000-9,000 seats empty [against Sri Lanka]. It would be nice if we can fill that up and help us to hear you guys pushing our individual players, the whole team forward and give us the energy that we maybe are missing in the last moment,” Dooley told reporters on Friday.
“It was a very good feeling in the stadium. It was loud, there was a lot of support. It was fantastic when the fans were here, but if there are maybe a couple more there, it would help us even more,” he added.
Dooley is referring to the considerable number of empty seats in the stands during Bangladesh's matches against Bhutan and Sri Lanka.
Steep ticket prices were viewed as a reason behind low ticket sales before the tournament began. The organisers later slashed the ticket prices, from 999 taka to 800 taka, and even offered discounts, but the fans are yet to sell out the National Stadium.
With the home side qualifying for the knockout phase, however, chances are that a packed National Stadium will cheer on the home side against Pakistan.
Meanwhile, the hosts, chasing their first SAFF title in men’s football in 23 years, will be without right-back against Pakistan after he suffered an injury against Sri Lanka, and is reportedly out of action for around a year.
“He was a very strong defender on the right side, very offensive-minded, defensive, skillful, and very hard. Obviously, he will be missed tomorrow and we just have to compensate that with another player,” said Dooley, however, he is yet to name the replacement.
There was some positive injury update as well as experienced defender Topu Barman, who was supposed to lead Bangladesh in the tournament opener against Bhutan before getting ruled out after an old injury flared up during the pre-match warm-up, is available for selection.
“Right now he [Topu] trains with us, right now he said he can, he feels free, there are no pain in his legs. He’s ready whenever we need him.”
The opponents have been reinforced ahead of the semifinal with the arrival of five overseas-based players.
Dooley rated Pakistan highly as opponents but was confident his charges would come out on top.
“Pakistan is maybe the most difficult one to play against. They are very strong. They showed in the Asian Cup against Philippines and against Vietnam, great results and great competition. So obviously it's something that we cannot take lightly anyhow. We have to be 100% prepared.
“The 5 individual players who are coming in from outside the country, obviously they also have an incredible football knowledge because they're playing at a higher level in Europe. So, it will be very difficult also with them.
“But after the game that we had two nights ago, I'm very pleased with the team and we just have to do the same thing. We have to fight, we have to show the fans that we can play football, that we can fight football, and we do it for the fans.”