November 11, 2003	Tuesday	Ramazan 15, 1424

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KARACHI, Nov 10: Following poor response from probables for the preparations of the World Cup pre-qualifying matches against Kyrgyzstan here, chief selector on Monday suggested top football officials to extend the date of trials to Nov 20 or 21.

The 20-member squad was scheduled to be announced on Monday, but since only 16 probables have reported at the Steel Mills football ground, the chairman of the selectors is planning to hold the final trials on either Nov 20 or 21.

Chairman of the selection committee, Col Yunus Changezi, said PFF had asked the 26 probables selected by the previous PFF officials, to report for the training camp, but he would advise the top officials to extend the date of the trials.

“Since the names of the 26 players have already been sent to the Asian Football Confederation, we have to see those 26 players before shortlising them to 20. Besides, we have also called up players from departments and provinces to select the best possible squad,” he said.

PFF came into action by announcing training camp from Nov 6 but the probables are yet to reach, probably because of being invited on such a short notice.

After dilly-dallying for about a week, PFF has finally confirmed the matches will be played here on Nov 29 and Dec 2.

The vice-president of the PFF, Ghulam Abbas, said the home game would be played on Nov 29 and the away, which had also been shifted to Pakistan, on Dec 2, at People’s Sports Complex.

According to PFF secretary Arshad Lodhi the away match was shifted on Kyrgyzstan’s request because of harsh winters and heavy snow in the former Soviet Union state.

While the PFF is facing a challenge owing to non-availability of the players, Abbas sparked a controversy when he claimed himself as the chairman of the PFF competition committee.

However, Arshad refuses to recognise Abbas as the chairman of the said committee, saying there exist no such body.

“No one is the chairman of the competition committee as there is no committee yet except the selection committee. We have just taken over the charge of the federation and are in process of forming different committees,” Arshad said.

Abbas argued that being the second senior most vice-chairman of the PFF, he was chairman of the competition committee according to the constitution.

The constitution is, however, likely to be amended as nominated officials are working on suggesting the amendments for the approval of the general council. Interestingly, Abbas is also among the officials given the task to suggest amendments.