Pakistan to host city franchise-based football league

LAHORE: Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) and Strawberry Sports Management are jointly bringing city franchise-based league in which top talent from Pakistan and international footballers will be seen in action.

Two-week event is to be scheduled in last quarter of this year. The inaugural season of the league is likely to be played in Karachi and Lahore during the last quarter of 2018. Top national players have already been lined up for the league, while PFF is reaching out to players abroad. The event will see minimum 5 teams named after different regions of Pakistan including 4 provinces.

PFF has assured its complete support for the League and stressed that it will set the direction of football in the country towards talent development and exposure.Strawberry Sports Management showed its desire to hold variety of pre event activations for the League to ensure organic support and ownership for the League.

Shahid Khokhar, Head League Development & Media PFF Director of the Classic Football League dubbed the CFL as vital for the promotion of football in Pakistan.“Football is the most popular sport in the world. But unfortunately, in Pakistan, football couldn’t attain the heights it could have. There are several reasons for this, including the fact that Pakistan was unable to adopt the latest measures in the sport,” Shahid said.

About CFL, Shahid praised the model and whole concept, “the franchise based model of the Classic Football League is popular globally. It allows the stakeholders to participate in the development of the sport. This also gives the corporate sector a prominent role” he said. He also assured full support for the success of the League.

Shehzad Anwer, Technical Director of PFF, also the chairman CFL selection committee, appreciated the gesture of Strawberry Sports Management to promote football. He also lauded Haider Ali Daud Khan, Chairman of CFL, for his efforts in development of the sport. “PFF has formed a selection committee based on highly qualified coaches have been established to select players for the Diamond and Gold and Emerging Categories”.

Sajjad Mehmood, Director Competition PFF, said the competitiveness of the CFL is the most prominent feature of the event. “We are having serious deliberations on the timing of CFL as we need to adjust it with Pakistan Premier League”, but anyways it will be staged somewhere towards the end of the year 2018” Sajjad Mehmood revealed about the final dates and timing of the CFL. “CFL will supplement the PPL and B-Division League” Sajjad added.