Uruguay’s football club to tour Pakistan

KARACHI: Atletico Penarol FC Under-16, a Uruguay’s football club, will tour Pakistan in April to play a three-match series against Pakistan XI FC, the event organiser told The News on Monday.

He said that two matches would be conducted at Karachi while one would either be held in Lahore or Multan.‘We are yet to decide about the venue of one game. But most probably it would be held in Multan or Lahore,” the organiser said.

He added that in May Pakistan would also tour Uruguay for three-match series. He said in order to undertake the whole project a company, Vision Pak, has also been opened. The official said that as per FIFA statistics Atletico Penarol is the biggest club of South America and eighth in the world.

The organiser said that country-wide trials would be conducted to form Pakistan XI Under-16.“We have already identified centres where we will hold trials and I am confident we will raise a solid squad,” the organiser said. “This would be our first step. I am in contact with clubs of other countries but first we would like to make the coming event a success so it would not be any problem for us in future,” he said. It would be a great news when the South American club will tour Pakistan where football has been suffering for the last three years due to infighitng between Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) and a rival group being headed by Arshad Lodhi and Zahir Shah, both former PFF congress members.

No Pakistan team has ever toured abroad in the same time-frame since April 2015. Last October FIFA also suspended PFF for third party’s interference that has further complicated the issue.Last year Leisure Leagues, a company of World Group, had managed a tour of former Brazilian icon Ronaldinho and Friends who played one game each in Karachi and Lahore.