May 31, 2008	Saturday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 25, 1429

LAHORE, May 30: Frank Lowy, chairman Football Federation Australia (FFA), has assured PFF President Faisal Saleh Hayat that his country was willing to help the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) to promote the game in their country.

“Frank assured me that an Australian team would soon be touring Pakistan. The climates of both Australia and Pakistan may be similar but their soccer teams’ game plan and technique are very different and footballers in Pakistan will benefit a lot from the Australian way of playing. Australia currently stands at no. 43 in the FIFA World Ranking,” said Faisal, who is attending the FIFA Congress meeting in Australia along with a three-member delegation.

Faisal also met with H.E. Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa, president of the Bahrain Football Association in order to discuss with him matters of promoting soccer and organising exchange visits of men and women teams besides the possibility of holding training courses for referees, coaches and administrators.

Bahrain had earlier helped the PFF by lending it the qualified coach Salman Sharida, who proved very helpful in honing the skills of the players here. But Sharida left in early 2007, soon after the December 2006 Asian Games, when he got a better offer from a club in Bahrain.

The PFF did not hire any other qualified foreign coach in Sharida’s place as it is unable to bear the expenditure.

With the aim of PFF’s cementing relations with them, Faisal also met with the heads of various other national football bodies like Kazi Mohammed Salahuddin (Bangladesh Football Federation), Shahir Ahmed (Football Association of Maldives), Kawabuchi Saburo (Japan Football Association), Ho Peng Kee (Singapore Football Association), Ganesh Thapa (All Nepal Football Association) and AFC Vice President Manilal Fernando.