Bangladesh's national team debuted in 1973 and has yet to qualify for the World Cup finals. They were dismissed in the first round of their only Asian Cup appearance to date in 1980; by qualifying for it, Bangladesh is one of the only two South Asian nations to achieve the feat. The nation's best results came at South Asian level where it won the SAFF Championship in 2003, under the coaching of  György Kottán  and were gold medalists in South Asian Games once as a national team. Bangladesh was one of southern Asia's leading team in the 2000s. However, as is the case elsewhere on the subcontinent, top-level football in Bangladesh is played somewhere in the shadow of the country's national cricket team. This is mostly due to inadequate budget allocation and lack of technical skills adaptation. To date, football remains a popular sport in Bangladesh but cricket remains the most popular sport in the nation.