Pakistan football team to tour Bahrain

KARACHI: In a bid to prepare for the 18th Asian Games and SAFF Championship, Pakistan football team will tour Bahrain in the middle of July, a senior official of the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) said on Wednesday.

“Yes, the tour has been confirmed. The team will tour Bahrain from July 15 to 30,” PFF secretary Col Ahmed Yar Lodhi told ‘The News’.

He said that the PFF was also planning to arrange another tour for the team which had not played a single international game during the last three years.

“We are also trying to arrange another tour for the footballers. It may be of Thailand, Qatar, Malaysia or Indonesia. Let’s see what happens,” Lodhi said.

He also revealed that a 30 to 35-member squad would tour Bahrain.

“If another tour was arranged then some players, who will take part in the SAFF Championship, will return home and only those will embark on the next tour that will become part of the Asian Games,” Lodhi said.

A team source said that Pakistan were expected to play minimum four practice matches on their Bahrain tour.

Pakistan will return to international football after three years when they will take part in the Asian Games slated to be held in the Indonesian cities of Jakarta and Palembang from August 18 to September 2.