September 26, 2008	Friday	Ramazan 25, 1429

KARACHI, Sept 25: Pakistan’s Nasir Ismail and Shahzad Anwer have been named by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to undergo the A License Course to be held in Sri Lanka from Oct 20 to Nov 15, 2008.

The course, to be participated in by 22 AFC coaches from all over Asia, is offered only to a select few who have already passed the B License course.

Nasir Ismail and Shahzad Anwer are two of the AFC Aid-27 coaches imparting football training in Pakistan. Nasir who belongs to the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) was the head coach of the Pakistan Under-13 squad that came fourth in the 12 teams competing in the junior event in Bangladesh in 2007. He also coached the U-14 squad that featured in the Iran AFC Festival of Football in May this year where Pakistan finished fifth.

Besides assisting national team coach Salman Sharida in 2005, Nasir Ismail is head coach of the NBP team and has himself as a midfielder been a part of the Pakistan team that featured in the 1993 World Cup qualifying round, the 1999 SAFF Cup and the Asian qualifying round in 2003.

Besides working as a youth development officer in Pakistan Football Federation’s Sargodha Centre, Shahzad Anwer, the other coach who would be accompanying Nasir to Sri Lanka, also provides football coaching at the PAF College in Sargodha. He has also served as the head coach of the U-13 squad (2005) and was a junior international player himself.

Both coaches, who happen to be the first two selected for the course from Pakistan, passed their AFC B License course in 2006 on behalf of which they qualified for the A License course.