The Pakistan Football Federation has approved 28 players for camp training to prepare for the World Cup qualifying round. Faisal said that the camp will start from June 1 at Lahore to prepare for World Cup Qualifying Round (home and away) matches against Bangladesh on June 29 at Dhaka, Bangladesh and on July 3 at Lahore.
Pakistan will take on Bangladesh first at Dhaka and later they will travel to Pakistan to play here. And for the team’s preparation PFF president has called 28 players for camp to be established most probably at the Punjab Stadium or maybe at Model Town Football Academy ground.
The Pakistan team’s preparations for the round were marred by the rejection of the Israeli authorities who did not give NOC to the Palestinian football officials to convene two away matches. Pakistan played two home matches against Palestine last month but when they were preparing for their away matches the Israelis did not allow the Palestinians to host Pakistan.
The security situation in Pakistan has damaged the country’s sport to such an extent that no international team is willing to visit here and it was the Palestinian team that first landed here to play two matches here at Lahore and Karachi which also paved the way for Olympics qualifying match between Pakistan and Malaysia.
PFF succeeded in luring Palestine and Malaysia play in Pakistan at a time when the Pakistan Cricket Board and Pakistan Hockey Federation despite tall claims failed to bring international matches to the country. The PHF was trying out to hold a test series against Egypt but insurgency against President Hosni Mubarak regime led the Interior Ministry prevent green shirts to tour Egypt. Cricket was hit worst but the only foreign team that visited Pakistan for a series was Afghanistan. But now it seems the PFF would again take the lead in hosting another international team after Palestine and Malaysia in July.
The players include:
Bilal Rafique, Mohammad Asif, Manzoor Ahmed, Alamgir Khan, Faisal Iqbal, Samar Ishaq, Mohammad Ahmed, Kamran Khan, Mohammad Shahid, Jadeed Khan, Syed Arif Hussain, Mohammad Khan, Mohammad Adil, Kaleemullah, M. Rizwan Asif, Arif Mahmood, Mohammad Qasim, Imran Niazi, Shakir Lashari, Husnain Abbas, Jaffar Khan, Jajamgir, Rehan, Rana Fakhr Hayat, Shahid Nabi, Mohammad Muddasar, Mohammad Ikram and Ahmad Akbar Khan.