Multan clinch U-15 Football Cup title

LAHORE: Punjab U-15 boys Football Cup concluded in a thrilling fashion when Multan edged out Sahiwal by 5-4 on penalty shoot-outs at Punjab Stadium on Wednesday night.

Punjab Sports Minister Taimoor Khan and Director General Sports Punjab Muhammad Aamir Jan were the guests of honour at grand closing ceremony and distributed prizes among the prominent performers of the championship.

Both the teams exhibited wonderful fighting game in the stipulated time and thwarted several attempts on the goal post in both sessions. After goal-less 90-minute play, both the finalist teams were given five penalty kicks each to decide the outright winner of the championship.

Multan boys showed more accuracy in the penalty shoot-outs and converted all of their five kicks into goals. However, Sahiwal’s Saqlain Manzoor failed to find the net and struck his shot on the goalpost giving their opponents 5-4 triumph in the title clash.

Later, in the award and prize distribution ceremony, President Punjab Football Association Sardar Naveed Haider gave awards to Punjab Sports Minister Taimoor Khan, Director General Sports Punjab Aamir Jan, Director Admin Javed Chohan, Director Sports Hafeez Bhatti, Deputy Directors Tariq Wattoo and Shahid Nizami on behalf of PFF President Faisal Saleh Hayat. Punjab Sports Minister Taimoor Khan and Director General Sports Punjab Aamir Jan also gave awards to PFF Secretary Col Ahmed Yar Khan Lodhi, President PFA Sardar Naveed Haider and Asghar Khan.

Multan, the winners of the tournament, were awarded trophy and cash prize of Rs 1,80,000 while the runners-up Sahiwal pocketed trophy and Rs 90,000 cash prize. Multan’s Adnan Justin was adjudged best player of the tournament, Lahore’s Awais was declared best goalkeeper, Sahiwal’s Hammad remained top scorer while the award of fair-play went to Faisalabad team.

Great passion of young players makes it a memorable event: Taimoor Punjab Minister for Sports Taimoor Khan has said that great passion of young football players made the Punjab U-15 boys Football Cup a memorable tournament, he expressed these views while talking to media the closing ceremony of Punjab U-15 Football Cup at Punjab Stadium on Wednesday night.

Khan said in response to a question that under-construction sports projects will be completed without any delay. “Construction work at Squash Complex and Boxing Arena will be completed as early as possible,” he added.

Replying another query, Khan said there is no scarcity of sports talent in Pakistan. “We will utilize all of our resources to trace sports talent at grassroots level”.

Khan said the Punjab U-15 Football Cup is a joint venture of Sports Board Punjab and Punjab Football Association. “This coordination is quite encouraging thing for a healthy future of sports in the province. We will organize more such events with the collaboration of other sports associations of the province,” he explained. The closing ceremony was attended by PFF Secretary Col (retd) Ahmed Yar Khan Lodhi, President Punjab Football Association Sardar Naveed Haider, Director Admin Javed Chohan, Director Sports Hafeez Bhatti, Deputy Directors Tariq Wattoo, Shahid Nizami, DSO Multan Rana Nadeem Anjum and Mian Rizwan.