Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) President Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat has approved as many as 23 players for the final U-13 training camp which is in progress here at Punjab Stadium.
The sixth national U-14 festival of football last January helped PFF to select the probables for Pakistan U-13 team which will appear in AFC U13 festival of football, slated to run at Bangladesh from 4th-8th May 2007, a spokesman of PFF said, here on Thursday.
German soccer expert Klaus Stark, the coach of Afghanistan at Karachi's 6th Saff Championship 2005, attended the 7-day national event from 20th-27th January and picked the promising 44 players of which 21 had to leave the camp, he added.
Garhi Shahu United Academy (GSUA)'s Wahab Mehmood and Muhammad Naveed had managed to earn place in 23 probables that proved that academies in Lahore are doing their work with perfect assignment and total commitment. Muhammad Muteen and Adnan Ayub of GSUA were also in camp but they failed to impress coach Nasir Ismail (Karachi) and assistant coach Muhammad Habib (Faisalabad). Bata Academy's Hassan Khan Saleem, Zain Ul Islam and Mudassar Mukhtar also forced their way into final camp.
The 13-day AFC C-Certificate Coaching Course is in progress, which will come to conclusion on 8th May 2007. It is part of the festival, which will be followed by Head Coaches Workshop (1-2 May), AFC Referees' Talent Acceleration Programme (1st- 3rd May), and U-14 soccer event from 4th-8th May.
Faisal Saleh stated that Pakistan's boys team is taking part in football festival for the fourth time after AFC U-14 festival of football at Kathmandu 2004 and Islamabad 2006 and AFC U-13 festival of football at Dhaka 2005. Participants used to learn new skills, techniques, and share ideas with the goal of improving the game of football in such festivals, he added.
THE 23 PROBABLES ARE: Ahsan Ullah, Asif, Adeel Khalid, Awais Anwar, Abdul Waheed, Ahmed Faheem, Hafiz Ahmed Nisar, Hassan Khan, Hassan Khan Saleem, Irfan, Moaz Akber, Muhammad Ikram, Muhammad Salman, Muddasar Mukhtar, Zainul Islam, Muhammad Naveed, Muhammad Sajid, Rasool Bux, Faheem Shah, Wahab Mehmood, Waleed Hameed, Yaqoob and Saeb Ashraf.
Moreover, Pakistan Football Federation has announced that pursuant to the restraining orders received from the Lahore High Court by the Punjab Provincial Election Commissioner, the results of Punjab Football Association elections, held on 26th April 2007, cannot be officially declared till further notice.