LAHORE, Feb 7: President, Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat on Saturday approved 75 players in the build up for the national team to appear in Nepal’s Prime Minister Cup in March and Sri Lanka’s third AFC Challenge Cup-2009 Qualifiers in April.

The camp commences on Feb 9 at Lahore and will carry on until the first week of March when the team leaves for Nepal. With current champions India, Tajikistan and DPR Korea enjoying direct entry into the AFC Challenge Cup finals, the draw slotted 16 teams into four groups of four teams each. The Tajiks were runners-up in 2008 while DPR Korea finished third.

The AFC received a total of 17 entries, including Pakistan, for the third edition of the competition and the AFC Competitions Committee decided that the last two teams — Mongolia and Macau — according to the FIFA rankings in the list would play off for a spot in the qualification on March 7 and 14.

The qualifying round is scheduled to take place from April 2-13, while India will host eight-team finals from July 28 to August 8 2010.

The winner of the event will qualify for the 16th Asian Cup 2011. However, if India successfully defends its 2008 title, the runner-up will qualify instead.

The players called for camp:

Goalkeepers: Jaffar Khan (Army), Ghulam Nabi (KRL), Amir Gul (NBP), Bilal Rafiq (PIA), Basit Ghafoor (PEL), Zaid Arif (PEL), Jahangir Shah (Afghan FC, Chaman), Muzammil Hussain (Punjab), Saqib Hanif (NWFP).

Defenders: Naveed Akram, Akram Masih (Wapda), Mohammad Imran, Ghulam Mustafa (Army), Mohammad Ahmed, Mohammad Kamran, Samar Ishaq (KRL), Aurangzeb (KPT), Majid Hussain (Navy), Atiqullah, Yasir Sabir, Adil Ahmed (NBP), Haji Mohammad, Abdul Jabbar, Ali Ehsan, Zubair Moazzam (PIA), Aurangzeb (HBL), Mohammad Idrees, Waqas Ahmed (Wohaib FC), Atif Hussain, Nadir Ali, Umar Daraz (Punjab), Alamgir Khan, Naqeebullah (NWFP).Midfielders: Mohammad Mehdi (Wapda), Michael Masih (Army), Majid Ali, Mohammad Wasim (KPT), Abbas Ali, Abdul Aziz (NBP), Nasrullah Khan (PIA), Ibrahim (HBL), Javed Hamza (KESC), Mohammad Rashid, Mohammad Ibrahim (PEL), Mehmood Khan, Jadeed Khan (Afghan FC), Mustafa Hussain, Mohammad Zubair (Islamabad), Naeemullah (Punjab), Jabbar Khan (Balochistan).

Strikers: Imran Niazi, Arif Mehmood (Wapda), Imran Hussain, Jaffar Ali (Army), Abid Khan, Mohammad Essa, Mohammad Qasim, Mohammad Rasool (KRL), Asif Mehmood, Sajjad Ahmed, Farhan Qadir (Navy), Farooq Shah, Mohammad Asif (NBP), Shakir Lashari (PIA), Zakir Lashari, Mohammad Ishtiaq (HBL), Mohammad Adil (PEL), Kalimullah (Afghan FC, Chaman), Mudassar Butt (Wohaib FC), Saeed Ahmed, Saidullah (Muslim FC, Chaman), Fahadullah Khan (Islamabad), Tehseen Ahmed (Sindh), Ali Raza (Punjab), Zainullah (Balochistan).—Agencies.