Maldives likely to tour Lahore in November

KARACHI: Maldives is the likeliest to tour Lahore in November to play international football friendlies which will mark Pakistan’s return to international circuit after three years.

A senior official of the FIFA-appointed Normalisation Committee told The News on Monday that efforts were being made to invite any nation. He said Maldives were on “stand by”. The official said that there were some impediments in the way of managing a series with a foreign nation.

“The issues are that Jinnah Stadium, Islamabad, is being renovated and we have requested Sports Board Punjab for giving us the Punjab Stadium and we are waiting for its reply. Once we get a green signal then we will go for arranging friendlies in November,” the official said.

The official said that district-level events would be seen when they reached the scrutiny stage of the clubs following their registration. The official said that efforts would be made to finalise the electoral list for districts elections by January 15.

The official said that recruitment for the secretariat was an ongoing process. The official said that as NC is yet to get the possession of the PFF accounts, some major works were not possible. He added that the accounts case is in the courts.

Meanwhile, the NC said in a press release that it was concentrating on the process of elections which ultimately has taken up the speed of the club registration process under Pakistan Football Connect”.

“Till now, more than 4,000 organisations have applied for registration in the Pakistan Football Connect programme of which 1077 are under verification whereas more than 2,100 have given response with additional information about their respective organisation,” NC said.

“Moreover, 1455 organisations will be receiving Connect IDs soon,” it said. “We are glad to see such an amazing response towards Pakistan Football Connect. The organisations will be given live access to the portal soon,” NC added.