KARACHI, Feb 24: The inaugural 5-a-side Asian Under-16 Hockey tournament will be held in Singapore from April 4 to 7, said Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) consultant and former Olympian Tahir Zaman on Sunday.

“International Hockey Federation (FIH) is launching 5-a-side hockey to promote the sport in hockey developing countries,” said the PHF consultant after supervising the opening day’s trials of Pakistan U-16 at the Hockey Club of Pakistan.

Talking about rules of the soon-to-be-launched format of the game, he said the new FIH competition has different rules and format.

“It will be played on 41.5x65 meter field with three halves of 15 minutes each with three minutes break in each half,” Tahir said, adding that there will be no goal-scoring circle and scoring will be allowed from the 11m line.

The PHF consultant further said that in case of a draw, two-minute extra time will be given with both the teams getting two-minute extra time every time they end up in a draw, adding that each time the teams get extra time their strength will keep on reducing from five to four to three and so on.

The Asian 5-a-side hockey event will serve as qualifying rounds for the second Youth Olympic Games being staged in the Chinese city of Nanjing in 2014.

Tahir said besides Pakistan, India, Korea, Malaysia, Japan, China, Bangladesh, Oman and Singapore are other countries taking part in the event.

He maintained that the PHF is conducting countrywide U-16 hockey trials to select probables for training camp, adding that having held trials in Peshawar and Lahore, three phases of trials for boys from Sindh and Balochistan had already commenced at the Hockey Club of Pakistan Stadium on Sunday. Stating that around 60 boys had reported for the trials, Tahir said that the Pakistan juniors team management is supervising the trials.

He said around 50 boys will be picked for the training camp and short-listed for different phase of camps with the final phase of the training camp to be held in Karachi.

He also maintained that a nine-member squad will be selected from the final phase of the training camp.—APP