President, Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) on Friday confirmed that the Olympic football competition is to retain its current under-23 status at the XXX Olympiad in London 2012. FIFA had been looking into the idea of changing the system to Under-21 after the bigger confederations expressed their desire for the change.
However, the PFF Chief has not ruled out the possibility of a change in the system, which currently limits teams to players under the age of 23 as well as three overage players, for Rio de Janeiro's Olympics in 2016. "There will be a meeting in February 2010 in Zurich to discuss the period beyond 2012 but, for the time being, the decision is to stay as we are," the PFF head said.
Olympic Soccer, for players under the age of 23 and below, with three exceptions for older players, officially began during the 1992 Barcelona Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. It may be noted that the South Asian Olympic Council (formerly known as South Asian Sports Federation) is the governing body of South Asian Games (SAG) and they follow the scheme of International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) and transformed 9th South Asian Games Football in Islamabad 2004 into system that allows teams to field three overage players at the event alongside a squad of under-23 players.
Pakistan will try to accomplish the task of memorable hat-trick when Dhaka will host 11th South Asian Games Football Tournament next year, Faisal said, adding, "Our main objective in PFF Calendar 2010 is to accomplish SAG hat-trick. We will develop strong Pakistan U-23 under team under Vienna-born Pakistani coach George Kottan to give us third gold on the trot after triumphs in 2004 (under Wang Xiao He, China) and 2006 (under Salman Ahmed Shareeda, Bahrain). Pakistan won gold medal in 1989 and 1991.
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