Bangladesh Football Federation has sacked Brazilian Edson Silva Dido as the head coach of the national football team. Dido has been replaced by Shahidur Rahman Shantoo, with Saiful Bari Tito being his deputy. Satyajit Das Rupu will helm the team as manager. The BFF at an emergency meeting of the executive committee made the decision. The team picked up by Dido has been dissolved as well and the training camp has been suspended.

National team management committee member Hasanuzzaman Bablu told bdnews24.com, "We sacked Dido in the national interest. He made a team excluding 6 to 7 key players. We failed to make him understand and finally executive committee took the decision." The decision came just before SAF championship.

Chief of national team management committee Badal Roy told bdnews24.com, "We failed to change his (Dido) mind after several tries. "We have been forced to accept his committee as he was claiming transparency in selection on Sunday. But our thinking is his selected team would not play better even in the first round of upcoming SAF championship. "It's a B team. We sacked him in national interest."

Dido told bdnews24.com, "I heard that they fired me but I have not been formally informed." Dido was signed for a year in January 31. The excluded players are defender Rajani Kanta Berman, midfielder Arman Aziz, goalkeeper Biplob Bhattacharya, midfielders Zahed Parvez, Zahid Hossain, Mofazzel Hossain and Ariful Islam. Eight footballers had boycotted training at the camp at BKSP in last July defying Dido. Later he preferred to leave them out of the national fold.

-bdnews