0
LAHORE: Two foreign football teams will tour Pakistan in March as PFF will do what the country’s major sports like cricket and hockey have failed to do to bring international teams to the country.
Palestine’s national team will face Pakistan in Lahore on 1 March, followed by an encounter in Karachi on 4 March. Later on, Pakistan’s Olympic Team will clash with the Malaysian Olympic Team in the second leg of the London Olympic Qualifiers on 9 March.
When no one was ready to visit Pakistan, PFF hosted the Afghanistan women team in the third National Women’s Champonship in 2007 and Iran's Malavan Bandar Anzali of Iran in the fifth edition of the same event two years later, and now the Palestine and Malaysian teams will tour Pakistan, said Pakistan Football Federation (PFF)'s President Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat.
Pakistan, after two internationals at Lahore and Karachi, will reciprocate by visiting Palestine in April- May.
“Pakistan has a great tradition of sports and Pakistani sportsmen have excelled internationally with the hockey team winning the World Cup four times and the cricket team lifting the World Cup once. Pakistan football team put up a brilliant display with a record four golds in the South Asian Games.
“It is unfortunate the security situation in the country has badly affected sports in Pakistan. It’s really unfortunate for Pakistan sports that it is currently completely isolated. I understand that it's a big drawback for our players and organizers which is discouraging,” the PFF chief said.
Pakistan have not hosted international cricket since March 2009 and was stripped of the 10th Cricket World Cup hosting rights.
Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF), in a bid to prove that Pakistan is safe for all sports activities, are planning to host the Egypt hockey team in April. Starved hockey lovers have been waiting for international hockey matches since February 26, 2006 when Pakistan-India were locked 3-3 in the sixth tie of the 10th Pak-India Series in Rawalpindi.
Recently, Pakistan tennis suffered another setback after the International Tennis Federation (ITF) ignored Pakistan for their Davis Cup tie against Hong Kong due to security reasons and shifted the tie to Hong Kong’s Victoria Park.
Pakistan’s uncertain security situation has worsened matters. Home players used to get opportunities to rub shoulders with professional players at home. But the PSA has stopped awarding World Tour events to Pakistan because of security apprehensions.
The country's sports suffered a major setback when the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team was attacked by terrorists in Lahore in March 2009, compelling the visiting team to return back to their country without completing the cricket series.
“It was my wish to play three international friendlies in each countries but time and financial constraints are hampering not only the series but several other events/courses in the PFF calendar 2011.
Faisal informed that FIFA releases $250,000 annually to PFF under Financial Assistance Program (FAP). PSB’s annual grant of Rs. 15 lacs is one of the hardships faced by the PFF which is not sufficient even for an event. Rs. 30 lacs alone were spent on Pakistan’s participation in the 16th Asian Games last November.
Even with financial constraints, the Pakistan football team kept producing sensational results, overwhelming Kyrgyzstan, Chinese Taipei, Turkmenistan, Singapore, India, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Nepal while drawing with Iraq, Iran, Oman, China and Bahrain in recent events.
