PSB plans to send football team to Russia for friendly

KARACHI: In a surprising move, the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) plans to send a football team to Russia for a friendly match this month after talks between the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) and the Russian Football Union for an official friendly match failed to materialise.

What makes this situation more intriguing is that the players are not being selected by the PFF, the official governing body of football in Pakistan. Instead, the PSB is assembling the team from what it refers to as “available resources.”

A senior PSB official confirmed to this correspondent that Pakistan will honor an invitation from the Russian government for a football match scheduled for Oct. 11, 2024. “The invitation, issued by Russia’s Minister of Sport, was sent through diplomatic channels, formally requesting Pakistan’s participation in the friendly match to strengthen bilateral relations between the two nations,” the official said.

The PFF’s Normalisation Committee had earlier expressed its inability to field a team for the match on Oct. 11 due to limited time for preparation. “We had communicated our position to the Russian Football Union, and discussions were paused from that point,” a PFF source told The News.