Camp for soccer team to be held in Doha

KARACHI: The Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) will set up a training camp for its national football team in Doha, Qatar, next month in connection with the preparations for next year’s international assignments, reliable sources told ‘The News’ on Sunday.

According to the sources, Qatar Football Association (QFA) has informed Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) that Qatar is ready to host Pakistan for the camp. Other things regarding the conditions of the camp are being finalised, sources said. However it has been learnt that Qatar has also promised that it would also arrange some practice matches for Pakistan during the camp.

Sources said that other nations, scheduled to feature in the AFC Asian Cup in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in January next year, would also come to Qatar in December and hopefully Pakistan might also play with them during their training period in Doha.

It has been learnt that Pakistan will send a sort of team to Qatar which would contain players of various age-groups keeping in view the requirements of the forthcoming international assignments next year.

Next year, Pakistan will feature in three events including the South Asian Games, 2020 AFC Under-23 Championship Qualifiers and the World Cup Qualifiers. The South Asian Games are slated to be hosted by Nepal in Kathmandu and Pokhara from March 9-18, 2019.

According to rules each participating nation of the region will have to field its Under-23 squad, with only three senior players. The 2020 AFC Under-23 Championship Qualifiers would be held from March 22-26. The qualifiers will also serve as first stage of the qualifiers for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. In the qualifiers, Pakistan have been clubbed in Group F with the last edition’s winners and hosts Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and arch-rivals India.

As per schedule, Pakistan will begin their journey with the game against Uzbekistan on March 22. On March 24, Pakistan will take on Tajikistan while on March 26 both India and Pakistan will clash. In the qualifiers 44 teams have been placed in 11 groups.

The group winners and four best second-placed sides will join hosts Thailand in the 2020 finals. As per rules, the hosts are given direct entry into the main event.

It will be followed by World Cup qualifiers next summer in which senior team would have to compete. As a preparatory measures for all these assignments Pakistan is set to face Palestine in an international friendly on November 15 at Faisal Al-Husseini International Stadium in Al-Ram, Palestine.

Pakistan are expected to fly out of Lahore to Palestine via Oman on Tuesday (tomorrow). The PFF was waiting for the permits which Palestine was scheduled to send to the PFF headquarters last night (Sunday). It was also learnt that the two Canada-based brothers Navid Rehman and Adil Rehman would also be part of the touring party for the outing against Palestine which would fall on FIFA Day. Both the midfielders, also having played in Slovakia, have already joined the camp in Lahore.

However Denmark-based players and Hong Kong-based former Pakistan captain Zesh Rehman would join the squad in Palestine. Pakistan’s camp for the Palestine game had been started at Lahore on November 7.

Brazilian coach Jose Antonio Nogueira would accompany the squad as head coach. Sources also said that Navid Rehman and Danish Superliga winger Adnan Mohammad were also eligible to represent Pakistan in the 2020 AFC Under-23 Championship Qualifiers.