Pakistan to feature in Asian Games, SAFF Championship

KARACHI: And, finally, some good news emerged. The freshly-restored Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) on Saturday announced that Pakistan will feature in this year’s Asian Games and SAFF Championship.

“National football teams will feature in the Asian Games and SAFF Championship,” the PFF chief Faisal Saleh Hayat announced at a press briefing after chairing the PFF ExCo meeting at the FIFA Football House in Lahore.

The Asian Games are slated to be held in Indonesia from August 18 to September 2, while SAFF Championship is penciled in for September 4-15 in Bangladesh.

The PFF senior-vice president Syed Khadim Ali Shah, vice-presidents Rubina Irfan and Sardar Naveed Haider, Mohammad Jan Mari, Fazal-ur-Rehman, Col (retd) Ijaz-ul-Haq, Arif Rahim, Ayaz Zahoor, Anwar Qureshi and Saleem Sheikh also attended the meeting.

This was after a long three years that PFF held its ExCo meeting. The world football governing body restored the membership of Pakistan few days ago after it had suspended it on October 10 last year. FIFA’s decision to lift sanctions came hardly a few days after Lahore High Court’s (LHC) division bench declared the PFF June 30, 2015, elections as legal.

The PFF also unveiled its plan that Pakistan women sides would also take part in the Under-16 and Under-19 SAFF Cups. The federation also decided that it will begin its activities with the National Football Challenge Cup.

“The PFF National Challenge Cup will be the opening event of our football activities which will be followed by other domestic and international events including Premier Football League, National Women Championship, referees and coaching courses,” Faisal said.

The ExCo also approved the appointment of Shehzad Anwar as PFF Director Technical and Sajjad Mehmood as Director Competitions. Sargodha-based Shehzad is the only pro-license coach and is a young and highly talented man. He was also head coach of Pakistan team in the 2016 SAFF Cup in Nepal. Sajjad, who is a coach of Khan Research Laboratories (KRL), has also served as Pakistan’s assistant coach for several years.

Faisal said during last three years, the building of PFF headquarters has been badly damaged and a private company has estimated Rs33 million to be spent on its rehabilitation.

“We have written a letter to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for a special grant to restore the condition of the PFF secretariat” Faisal said.