PFF looks to give U22 team international exposure

Training for Asian Cup begins with a friendly against Lebanon.


Natasha Raheel February 10, 2014
PFF Secretary Ahmed Yar Khan Lodhi said that the U22 team will tour Lebanon for a friendly match on February 19. PHOTO: FILE

KARACHI: The Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) wants to give maximum exposure to the under-22 team before the Asian Cup Qualifiers in June and July.

PFF Secretary Ahmed Yar Khan Lodhi said that the U22 team will tour Lebanon for a friendly match on February 19, while the federation will try to rope in more countries to play with Pakistan.

“Our aim is to give maximum exposure to the team,” Lodhi told The Express Tribune. “We are beginning this with Lebanon, who are currently ranked 123 in the world.

 photo HassanBaloch_zpsb37fac6c.jpg

“Of course they are a better side and we want to improve by competing against them. We accepted this opportunity willingly, and I hope we win there.”

Lodhi said that the federation was also in talks with other countries.

“We want to play matches abroad and even in Pakistan,” he said. We are proposing to Bahrain, Qatar, and the Maldives, and hopefully this can work out for us.

“But we want these matches to be played in May and June, before the U22 Asian Cup.”

We’ll be playing to win: Baloch

The national camp for the U22 squad began on Monday with 26 players, according to assistant coach Hassan Baloch, who said that the team would train for a week before the tour.

“It’s all about building a team at the moment,” said Baloch. “We had two sessions on Monday. The players are fresh out of playing in the Pakistan Premier Football League and they are enthusiastic.”

Baloch stated that although Pakistan would be playing a friendly match, their head coach Mohamed Shamlan was preparing the team for a good competition.

“It’s a friendly match, but we’ll play to win,” he said.

“They are a better side than us on paper, but Shamlan has a plan; he has studied their tactics. This camp is not a very long one, and at the end of the tour we’ll see which players performed well enough to be selected.”

The team will leave for Lebanon on February 17.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 11th, 2014.

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