Islamabad teams to appear in Portugal football event

KARACHI: The boys and girls teams of the Islamabad Football Association (IFA) would leave for Portugal in early July to feature in Castelo de Vide Cup 2017 to be held there from July 3-8.

A senior official of the IFA told ‘The News’ on Monday that the trials for the boys’ under-15 side had already been held. The trials for the girls’ team would be conducted in the next few days.

“We have shortlisted 45 boys,” IFA secretary Sharafat Bukhari told this correspondent from Islamabad.

“The camp of the boys will be held from April 6. The girls will undergo trials on Saturday or Sunday next,” he said.

He said that after one-week training, 25 boys would be picked and the final lot would be unveiled a few days before the team’s departure for Portugal.

He said that the girls’ camp would begin from Monday.

He said a ground in Islamabad had been chosen for the training. “We also considered the Jinnah Stadium for training but we have not yet filed any request for the purpose. The ground which we have chosen is also not bad,” he said.

He said that they were negotiating with sponsors and hopefully some parties would back the association in its mission to provide exposure to its budding players.

Sharafat added that the association had sent a boys’ under-17 team to China in November last year for an international event.

He said that IFA had already confirmed entries of both its boys under-18 and girls under-18