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PIA to face SGP in Football Challenge Cup
Staff Reporter
Islamabad—Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has announced the
team that will take on Sindh Government Press (SGP) on 6 May in the
Group-C of National Football Challenge Cup 2008 at Karachi’s CDGK
Stadium.
It will be do-or-die clash for both teams who suffered defeats in
their first match. PIA lost to HBL 0-1 on 2 May while SGP fell 0-2
infront of KPT on 3 May.
“The PIA-SGP clash will also be the repeat of 37th National Soccer
Championship that saw airmen winning 2-1 at Quetta 19 years ago. The
most successful team in Pakistan Football Federation (PFF)’s 61-year
history,
PIA’s football team have the honor of winning the National
Championship nine times and we will go all out to regain ascendancy
in domestic soccer “ said former Pakistani and PIA coach Tariq Lutfi
who has been appointed as manager of recharged PIA football team. He
himself was part of several PIA’s team that won the National event
as player and coach from 70s to 90s.”
PIA will be comprised of Muhammad Haji, Muhammad Irfan and Imran
Hashmi who were part of National team that overcame Nepal in Two-friendlly
Pokhara Series on goal counts last March. Nasrullah Khan, who
represented Pakistan U21 team in Beijing Olympics Qualifiers last
year, will lead the team while other players are Syed Sultan Ali,
Bilal Rafiq, Abdul Jabbar, Zubair Moazzam, Ali Ehsan, Wali Khan,
Shakir lashari, Abdul Ghaffar, Nadeem Tariq , Ali Adeem Shahzad,
Liaquat Ali, Nazir Ahmed, Zeeshan Ali and Waseem Ullah.
PIA were absent from PFF’s events from 2004 to 2006 as after
Quetta’s 16th PFF President in 2003, the soccer team of PIA was
disbanded.
PFF enrolled them in Pakistan Premiership 2007 by virtue of splendid
display in yester years and they finished sixth in 14-team
A-Division Soccer. “ After Premier League, we participated in
Karachi’s NBP Soccer Cup and Umaid Ali Khan Qaimkhani event at
Hyderabad and came out with flying colors.
PIA Sports management took serious look into the latest growing
activities of soccer and decided to re-activate the team that put up
brilliant display in domestic soccer from 1971 to 2003,” added Lutfi.
Despite, nine titles in National Championship, PIA managed only one
win in National Challenge Cup when they won the second edition at
Quetta 24 years ago.
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