PFF vows to back corporate sector’s football initiatives

KARACHI: Pakistan Football Federation’s (PFF) chief Faisal Saleh Hayat has said that the federation would support private sector in its endeavour to nurture football.

“The foundation of football development, which PFF laid in the last decade, has been badly damaged due to stoppage of the sport in Pakistan during the last three years,” Faisal said.“PFF has started working in full swing to bring the game back on track. It’s time that each segment of Pakistani society joined hands with the PFF to match the rapid pace in growth of football in the other countries of the region,” Faisal added.

He assured the corporate sector that PFF would provide full support so that they could play their role in football development in Pakistan. He said that the PFF would provide technical support to the organisers of the Classic Football League (CFL) which was announced a few months back by Strawberry Sports Management.

The PFF secretary Col Ahmed Yar Lodhi said that the CFL would help the federation find new talent. “The CFL will help PFF in identifying untapped young football talent in the country which meets the PFF basic objectives,” Lodhi said.

According to organisers, the two-week league would be held in Karachi in October this year. Pakistan’s leading current and former international footballers have already been registered as the first step. The organisers said in the next step country-wide transparent selection process would be held soon to pick players who have played at the national level. “And this will be followed by selection of emerging players,” the organisers said.

Shahid Khokhar, head of Development and Media PFF, has been nominated to coordinate between PFF and CFL.

“This will be the first of its kind event to be organised by the private sector,” Shahid said.PFF Director Technical Shehzad Anwar said: “To become a part of the CFL the players will be selected purely on merit.”