Naya Nazimabad Ramadan Night Football Tourney from today

KARACHI: Naya Nazimabad Ramadan Night Football Tournament begins on Sunday (today) here at Naya Nazimabad Football Stadium.

The city’s top footballers will be seen in action in the tournament, which will conclude on May 3.

“We will make sure all teams follow Covid-19 SOPs,” said Nasir Ismail, the organising secretary. “Hopefully, the event will be held in a safe manner,” he added.

There will be 12 teams in action during the tournament. The teams have been divided into four groups.

The Group A comprises Karachi United, Ghareeb Shah Union and Hazara Muhammadan. Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC), Bacha Khan Memorial and Mehfooz XI constitute the Group B.

The Group C matches will be played between CAA, Mosa Lashari FC and Eagle FC. The Group D has Khyber Muslim, Abdul FC and National Soccer.

Nasir further told PPI that footballers were hungry to play the sport and it will provide them a platform. “We have a well gated stadium to host this event. We can easily restrict crowd from entering the ground in large numbers,” he said.

“Football events have started almost all over the world. We shouldn’t also be depriving our youth of football action.”

The tournament offers a prize purse of Rs150,000 to the winners and Rs75,000 to the losing finalist.

The team that wins the fair play trophy will also get Rs20,000. The best player and the top scorer of the tournament will be given Rs10,000 each.

“Our sportspersons have struggled financially due to the pandemic,” Nasir said. “Tournaments such as this are the only source to earn bread and butter to many of them. So, the government should support and enable us to keep our athletes in action,” he added.