Wapda held in football league

Defending champions’ coach blames poor pitch, biased referees.

KARACHI:

Defending champions Wapda blamed the pitch and poor refereeing after they drew against Baloch FC in the Pakistan Premier Football League, as the hosts contained the seven-time champions in a goal-less match in Quetta.

Wapda struggled for form and failed to score any goal in the absence of talismanic striker Arif Mehmood, who suffered an injury during the Fifa 2014 World Cup qualifiers.

Despite a disastrous start to their PPFL campaign, where Wapda suffered a 1-0 loss to Afghan FC in their first match, coach Sharafat Ali believes the team is doing well in the championship, but were victim of biased refereeing and a bad pitch.

“This pitch is nothing like the ones we have in Lahore and in Islamabad,” Ali told The Express Tribune. “This pitch is extremely uneven. Moreover, the referees have also been biased towards the home teams and our players are treated unfairly. However, I believe the team is doing well, even though we are missing our star striker Arif Mehmood.”

Meanwhile, KRL crushed Pel 3-0 with Mohammad Rizwan scoring the opening goal in the 22nd minute. Tariq Lutfi’s team continued to dominate the game with Kalimullah adding a second in the 56th minute. Mehmood Khan then sealed the result in their favour as he scored the third for Pel in the 65th minute.

In the third match of the day, PIA’s Shakir Lashari scored a brace, in the 15th and 28th minute, to defeat PAF 2-0.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 9^th, 2011.