Pak street children football teams training for international events

KARACHI: Pakistan street children football team will feature in international youth events this year, a senior official of the Azad Foundation told ‘The News’ after a press briefing here on Thursday.

The official Irfan Maqbool said that the boys Under-16 team would be fielded in Chicago Kics to be held in the US from July 7-12. In the event 24 nations will be participating.

Irfan said that the same outfit would feature in the Norway Cup to be held from July 28 to August 8. He added that from August 12-16, the same team would take part in the Gothia Cup to be held in China.

Azad Foundation is being backed by US-based Muslim Hands and Habib Bank Limited (HBL).

Irfan said that 30 players, who had been picked through trials, had been training here at the Nasim Hameed Academy in Korangi-5 for the last few days.

He said that the boys had been picked from the under-privileged areas of Jacobabad, Quetta, Hyderabad, Wazirabad, Sahiwal, Faisalabad, Sialkot, Lahore and Mirpur, Azad Kashmir.

He added that the pool had four kids who had been part of Pakistan team in the under-14 international festival.

He said that for the first time Azad Foundation would be fielding Pakistan’s Under-16 girls side in tournaments in Norway and China.

He said that 18 girls had also been training at the Nasim Hameed Academy. Qurrat-ul-Ain, the sister of the 2010 South Games gold medallist athlete Naseem Hameed, is coaching the girls. She is an AFC License B coach, Irfan said.

He said that Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) under-14 team would be featuring in the Gothia Cup in China for the first time.

He also said that Pakistan would be fielding its team in the next year Street Child World Cup to be held in Russia.

However, a different team would be formed for the purpose keeping in view the rules and regulations of the event which would be held before the FIFA World Cup.