K-Electric to take part in Sheikh Kamal tournament

KARACHI: K-Electric have got permission from Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) for appearing in the Sheikh Kamal International Football tournament which will be held in Dhaka in October.
“We have been allowed by the PFF to feature in the tournament,” K-Electric’s sports manager Zabe Khan told ‘The News’ here on Monday.
“We are thankful to PFF secretary Col Ahmed Yar Lodhi for allowing us to play in the competitions. It will help us prepare better for the next year’s AFC Cup play-offs,” Zabe said.
He added that in a couple of days they would receive a formal letter from the PFF in this regard.
He said K-Electric would begin their preparation for the Dhaka slots from October 1.
There will be three teams from the hosts, two from India and one each from the Maldives, Nepal and Pakistan in the tournament.
The competitions are slated to be held from October 17-30.
K-Electric’s journey in the AFC Cup play-offs will begin in January next year.
In August they qualified for the play-offs after delivering well in the three-team qualifying round in Bhutan which had a club each from Bhutan and Mongolia as well.
England-based Majid Shafiq coached K-Electric on that tour.
K-Electric may get a Nigerian defender ahead of the tournament in Dhaka. “We have already hired the services of a Nigerian defender. A few months ago we requested the government for NOC. If we got NOC in time we would invite the Nigerian for the camp. If we did not get that we would invite him to Dhaka directly,” Zabe revealed.
He also said that Nigerians Oludeyi Abayomi Sunday and Wilson Segun would be part of K-Electric on the tour. “Yes, they will be invited. They are our key players for the next year’s play-offs,” Zabe said.
To a query he said England-based Irfan Khan was on his radar for the Dhaka assignment. “I plan to invite Irfan. He is a good player and played a key role in the play-offs qualifiers in Bhutan,” the official said.
Zabe said they would try to depart for Bangladesh a couple of days before the tournament so that they could get extra matches. “The basic purpose of our Dhaka tour is to prepare for the play-offs. And playing good practice matches against top oppositions would help us a lot,” Zabe said.
In the play-offs K-Electric will have to beat three different teams in the knock-out phase to move into the AFC Cup.