KARACHI, May 30: The technical officials failed to take cognizance of blatant violation of FIFA rules at the inaugural Under-16 national football championship on Sunday.

With the exception of Punjab, the players of all the three teams - Northern Areas, Azad Kashmir and Balochistan - wore jerseys having illegible numbers. To make matters worse, the Northern Areas goalkeeper played against Punjab wearing a white T-shirt without a number but neither the referee nor any concerned official objected.

Besides, the numbers on the back of the jerseys of Northern Areas were so small that they were not readable from the sidelines. Interestingly, Tariq Lutfi, who claims himself a 'professional coach', is acting as a match commissioner.

Tariq, a national coach, was demoted after a series of miserable performances under him. His side finished a poor fifth at SAFF Gold Cup in Dhaka last year before crashing out of Asian championship qualifying round after a 3-0 thrashing by hosts Singapore.

The team ended the year with a 2-0 defeat in Karachi against Kyrgyzstan and 4-0 drubbing in an away match in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek under Tariq, later demoted as China's Wang He's deputy at the SAF Games in Islamabad earlier this year.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) admitted that "few over-age players" could still be playing at the ongoing Under-16 competition. "We did not allow 13 over-age players after age scrutiny.

But I think teams might still have few over-age players as we have conducted facial scrutiny. The only way to determine correct age is the wrist X-ray which we did not take. It is an expensive affair.

"But once we hold the national camp for next year's Under-17 Asian championship, we will conduct X-ray tests also," PFF director technical Col Mujahidullah Khan said.

Mujahid said PFF had to compromise on age issue as teams would not be able to have 11 players if age scrutiny was conducted seriously and in a strict manner. "I agree that players ages should be checked but I am afraid that teams will not be able to have even 11 players if we conduct X-ray test," official opined.

Surprisingly, Tariq, who is the match commissioner, conducted the scrutiny of the players along with Mujahid. Asian Football Confederation (AFC) had slapped a two-year ban on eight Pakistani players and their manager and fined PFF $10,000 for sending over-age players at Under-17 Asian championship in UAE an yearago.