Abdul FC cruise into Leisure Leagues National Finals

KARACHI: Karachi’s Abdul Football Club overpowered Jacobabad’s Abdul Rehman Shaheed White in the Sindh Region final to become the first team to make it to the Leisure Leagues National Championship, which will be held later this month.

Playing at Agriculture University in Tando Jam, Shahrukh Khatak scored the lone goal of the match to help his team win the regional title and qualify for the national finals. Four teams, one from each province, will qualify for Leisure Leagues National Championship, which will be held in Karachi on July 28.

The winners of the national championship will represent Pakistan in the second edition of the Socca World Cup in Greece. The tournament will be held in Crete from October 12 to 20. Last year, Lahore’s ICAW represented Pakistan in the inaugural edition, which was hosted by Portugal in Lisbon.

Earlier, in semi-finals of the Sindh Region finals, Abdul FC defeated Larkana’s Al-Shams FC by 1-0 with Mohammad Asif scoring the lone goal. Abdul Rehman Shaheed White team thrashed Umerkot by 7-0 with international player Zulfiqar Shah firing four goals and Ahsan scoring three goals.

Anwar Khanzada, Director Sports Agriculture University, praised Leisure Leagues during the closing ceremony. Leisure Leagues Regional Manager Sindh Syed Shahroze, Leagues Manager Pakistan Riaz Ahmed, Coordinator COO Asif Mairaj, Ground Coordinator Waqas Abdul Razaq and others were also present on the occasion.

A total of 20 city teams, who won their respective intra-city championships, initially featured in Sindh region qualifying finals at three venues, Kandiaro, Rojhan Jamali and Tando Jam. Tando Jam hosted two five-team leagues. The winners of each of the four leagues qualified for semi-finals.