‘Football league to have foreign players’

Federation keen to rope in players from Afghanistan, Iran.

KARACHI:

Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) Director Development and Competition Pervez Saeed Mir has said that foreign players will be part of the Pakistan Premier Football League in the next couple of years.

Mir revealed that a few clubs of Balochistan are trying to rope in foreign players from Iran and Afghanistan and if quality players are inducted into the league, it would help improve its standard.

“We have the capacity to bring in foreign players in the league and in the coming years people will see players from Afghanistan and Iran playing in the PPFL,” Mir told The Express Tribune, before adding that people should give it time for improvements because it is just nine years old while other major leagues around the world are nearly 100 years old.

Mir said that the federation was making necessary adjustments but a major overhaul could not take place suddenly. He also confirmed that the PFF would be working on the suggestions of the Fifa officials who recently visited Pakistan to improve the football structure.

“We’ll definitely take their considerations into account but the implementation will be done keeping in mind our financial limitations because we can’t afford to spend lavishly.”

Muslim FC snatch late win against PMC

On the field, meanwhile, striker Saaed Ahmed scored a late winner to snatch a 1-0 win for Muslim FC against PMC in Faisalabad.

Elsewhere, Mubashar Ahmed’s early strike helped Army defeat HBL 1-0, while the Wapda-Afghan FC clash ended in 1-1. Zulfiqar Shah had given Wapda a fifth-minute lead, which was cancelled out by Jadeed Khan four minutes later as both teams settled for share of spoils.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 21^st, 2012.