Dhaka, March 5: The preliminary rounds of ‘U18 National Football Championship 2017’, organized by the Bangladesh Football Federation, will start in 8 regions of the country from March 9, 2017.

In total, 64 teams will participate in preliminary round of the nationwide tournament.

There will be 63 teams from 63 districts of the country and the other team will be Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Pratishthan (BKSP) as they beat Jessore Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board in a pre-tournament play-off and qualified for the main competition.

For the draw ceremony of the championship, the BFF arranged a press conference at 1:30 pm at the conference room of the BFF House on Sunday (05.03.2017).

BFF Senior Vice President Abdus Salam Murshedy, Vice President and Chairman of the BFF Competitions Committee Mohiuddin Ahmed Mohi, Vice President and Chairman of the BFF Development Committee Badal Roy, Satyajit Das Rupu, Md Elias Hossain, Md Iqbal Hossain, Md Fazlur Rahman Babul, BFF Competitions Committee member Amer Khan and BFF General Secretary Md Abu Nayeem Sohag were present during the draw ceremony.

In the preliminary round, the 64 teams will play at 8 venues (Feni, Sunamganj, Gopalganj, Shariatpur, Madaripur, Netrokona, Rajshahi and Dinajpur) across the country. Eight teams will play in league system at each venue divided into two groups.