LAHORE, May 7 Pakistan will attempt to earn a slot in Colombia's 19th World Under-20 Cup 2011 when they face Lebanon and the other tough teams from Uzbekistan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Maldives in the qualifying phase of the 36th AFC U-19 Championship Qualifiers (Group 'D').
Players born on or after Jan 1, 1990 will be eligible to play in the qualifiers, slated to run from Nov 1-15, 2009.
The AFC U-19 show — held every two years — also acts as a qualifying tournament for the FIFA U-20 World Cup in which Asia is given four berths. It is the world championship for players under the age of 20 organised by FIFA.
The President of the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat has asked the Operation Wing to call as many teams as possible for July's 20th National U-19 Championship in order to be able to come across an abundance of talented players in the required age limit.
“The AFC U-19 Championship was set up to provide another tier of competitive international football in Asia with the aim of developing young playing talent in the region.
“Pakistan has several fine footballers at the grass-root level including players who represented the U-13, U-14, U-16, U-17 teams between 2003 and 2008 who will soon be a part of the U-19 teams. Pakistan put up a fine display in the 2007 edition, drawing 0-0 with Bahrain and restricting Oman to a 0-1 score line. Mind you, these are Arabian nations whose national game is soccer,” said Faisal, adding that Pakistan also got the honour of playing the 10-team Asian finals at Shiroudi Stadium, Tehran, nine years ago.
AFC U-19 Championship groupings
Group 'A' -- Tajikistan, Jordan, Yemen, Nepal, Palestine, Kyrgyzstan.
Group 'B' -- UAE, Syria, Qatar, Bahrain, Bhutan, Sri Lanka.
Group 'C' -- Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, Kuwait, India, Afghanistan.
Group 'D' -- Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Iran, Lebanon, Turkmenistan, Maldives.
Group 'E' -- Korea Republic, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Macau, Bangladesh
Group 'F' -- Australia, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong
Group 'G' -- China, DPR Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, Guam, The Philippines. — Agencies.
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