January 30, 2003	Thursday	Ziqa’ad 26,1423

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LAHORE, Jan 29: Mani Lal Fernando, incharge of FIFA’s Goal Project for South Asia has in a wake up call to Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) directed it to step up its efforts for launching the project in Pakistan.

Fernando, who is also the senior vice president of the Asian  Football Confederation, spoke to the PFF secretary, Agha Liaqat Ali, expressing his concern over the delay of the $400,000 project, the approval for which had been given to Pakistan in 2001.

FIFA has only requested PFF to provide a suitable plot for the project as all other related expenses for the project will be borne by FIFA itself.

A Football House, having an academy and a football ground are the two main features of the proposed project.

In a related development, FIFA has decided to extend its Aid Programme to PFF for another one year (2003).

Meanwhile, a training camp to finalise Pakistan team for the Asia Cup qualifying round, will be held in Islamabad from Feb 20.

The preliminary round is scheduled to be held in Singapore from March 21. Besides Pakistan and host Singapore, the third team of this round is Macau. The top team will qualify for the main round to be held in China in April.