June 27, 2007	Wednesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 11, 1428

LAHORE, June 26: The sixth National U-15 football championship commences at Municipal Stadium, Khanewal from Wednesday.

A total of 16 teams are participating in the championship.

Khanewal District Football Association, has organized the event in collaboration with Pakistan Football Federation (PFF). Some matches will also be held at the Government High School ground.

“There will be no compromise on discipline and the players born on or after 1 January 1992 will only be eligible to play. I am sure that Match Commissioner and Chief Selector Akhtar Mohiuddin and age-scrutiny team will perform their duty with full heed, to delete overage players,” said PFF president Faisal Saleh Hayat. He said the PFF had to face Syria, Yemen, Oman, Qatar and Kyrgyzstan in the AFC U-16 championship qualifiers in Oct 2007 and in order to face those rivals PFF would go all out to prepare a formidable, talented team selected on merit from this event.

The teams participating in the event are Wohaib Club, Lahore, Afghan Club, Chaman and Punjab Medical College, Faisalabad, Crown Club, Khanewal, Northern Areas, Fata, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Islamabad with two teams each from four provinces.

Punjab will defend its title who were also champions in 1993. Sindh were also victorious twice (1994, 2004) while Balochistan clinched the 2005 edition at Quetta.

Technical officials:

Match Commissioner: Akhtar Mohiuddin.

Referee Assessor: Salahuddin Awan

Referees: Rana Naseer Ahmed (Faisalabad), Rauf Bari (Punjab Police), Shams Pervez (Lahore), Shahid Rasheed (Arifwala), Nisar Ahmed (Balochistan), Zahid Ali (Army), Zahid Ullah (NWFP), Imran Hussain (Sindh), Shahid Ali, Mehr Mukhtar (Okara), Abdul Hameed (Khanewal) and Muhammad Zahid ( Multan).