Female footballers want more events

National championship starts from September 19 in Lahore.

KARACHI:

Pakistan women’s football team captain Sana Mahmud has called for more events in order to gain more exposure as she prepares for the national championship that starts from September 19 in Lahore.

Mahmud will represent defending champions Young Rising Stars Football Club Rawalpindi in the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) National Women’s championship that will see 14 other teams taking part.

The PFF Director Operations Pervez Mir has said that the 14-day event will also provide an opportunity to the federation to select fresh players for the national squad.

However, Mahmud, who led the team into the semi-finals of the South Asian Women’s Football Championship in Bangladesh last year, said that the national championship is not sufficient enough and the PFF needed to organise more events.

“We haven’t been to any international tournament since last year,” Mahmud told The Express Tribune. “We were told that a good performance will earn us international exposure but nothing happened.

“However, I’m not disappointed and I can’t wait to play against strong clubs like Wapda, Diya FC and Islamabad FC in the championship. I have been practising with my club for two months to make sure that we successfully defend our title in the tournament.”





Published in The Express Tribune, September 6^th, 2011.