Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Kuala Lumpur: Pakistan who have been given the rights to host the AFC U-14 Festival of Football 2012 for the Central region are prepared for both the organising of the event and their own participating team.
A Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) Management Committee for the boys’ festival, which will be held at Islamabad from April 2 to 15, was constituted by the PFF under the chairmanship of Lt. Col (R ) Ahmed Yar Khan Lodhi, the PFF General Secretary, to facilitate the event along with its subsidiary local organising committee (LOC).
A total of 37 incumbents of the Pakistan U-14 players started their training camp at the festival venue, the Jinnah Sports Complex, Islamabad, from February 22.
The players were from AID 27 Karachi Zone B, AID 27 Karachi Zone A, Sindh, AID 27 Quetta Zone, AID 27 Faisalabad/Sargodha Zone, Islamabad FA, AID 27 Lahore Zone, AID 27 Peshawar Zone, AID 27 Chaman Zone, Gilgit, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The officials of training camp were Hassan Baloch (Coach), Najeeb Ullah Najmi (Assistant Coach), Zahid Taj (Goalkeeping Coach) and Kamran Mehdi (Physiotherapist).
“We have planned everything to host the AFC Festival in a befitting manner,” Ahmed Yar said.
“All the teams have confirmed their participation and we are looking forward to it,” he added.
Refereeing and coaching courses will mark the beginning of the festival on April 2 with two two-member teams from each Afghanistan, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan taking part.
The participating nations’ U-14 teams will arrive in Pakistan on April 9 for the tournament which will kick off April 11, concluding April 15.
Last year, Pakistan and Nepal were given the rights to host in this year the AFC’s annual festival which is held in five locations.
Qatar organised the first festival for this year on February 12-25 for the West region, to be followed by the Pakistan festival. The event will then move to China for the East region on April 16-29 while teams from the South region will compete in Nepal on May 10-25. Malaysia, meanwhile, will host the ASEAN teams on May 21-June 3.