LAHORE, Sept 13: Three-time national champions Army announced a 24-member squad for the third AFC President’s Cup. The event to be held at the Punjab Stadium here from Sept 20 to 30 will also be graced by the national champion clubs of some eight countries.

Army, which has the honour of winning gold in the 10th South Asian Games in Colombo, Sri Lanka, last year, has Mahmood Ahmed, Muhammad Imran, Mubasher Hussain and the former Pakistani skipper Jaffar Khan as goalkeeper in its squad. Babar Mahmood, who captained the team in the second edition of the event last year, is the hot favourite for captain. Imran Hussain, one of the scorers for Pakistan in the 6th South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship two years ago at Karachi and the leading marksman in the 51st National soccer, will lead the attack for Army along with Abid Masih, Jafar Ali, Adnan Bari and Muhammad Sajid. All team members are training for the forthcoming event at Rawalpindi’s Army Sports Complex.

Squad:

Goalkeepers (3): Jaffar Khan, Muhammad Imran and Mahmood Ahmed.

Defenders (9): Mohammad Khabab, Muhammad Kashif Shah, Muhammad Shahbaz, Ghulam Mustafa, Tanveer Shahid, Muhammad Imran, Umar Daraz, Muhammad Sharif and Gulzar Ahmed.

Midfielders (7): Majid Khan, Michael Masih, Babar Mehmood, Khalid Munir, Faheem Riaz, Muhammad Shabbir and Mubashar Hussain.

Strikers (5): Imran Hussain, Abid Masih, Jafar Ali, Adnan Bari and Muhammad Sajid.

Schedule of Pakistan Army’s three matches in Group ‘A’:

Sept 20: vs Ratnam Sports Club (Sri Lanka)

Sept 22: vs Regar-TadAZ (Tajikistan) at

Sept 24: vs Transport United (Bhutan)