ISLAMABAD: Activities of the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) are expected to cross Rs 200-million mark in the next five years, mainly through sponsorships and marketing, the governing body’s president Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat said on Saturday.

Faisal said he remained upbeat to help increase football-related activities in the country whose current monetary worth was Rs 20 million annually.

“We are spending Rs 20 million every year on football-related activities across Pakistan which involves domestic league matches, development expenses, international contests and administrative affairs,” said Faisal while talking to Dawn.

Faisal urged national and multi-national companies to come forward and support the national squad.

“Financial support from national and multi-national companies will definitely boost the game and we really need them,” the PFF chief asserted.

Regarding the coaching of the national team, he said: “We are looking at the option of hiring a coach from an East European country, specifically Croatia. But coaches from South America are always costly and we don’t have the money to engage any such coach.”