LAHORE: After a day of intense drama punctuated with several twists and turns, it was finally decided that the game would go on — but behind closed doors.

Pakistan were due to face Yemen in the second leg of their first-round qualifier for the 2018 FIFA World Cup at the Punjab Stadium on Tuesday but the suicide bombings at two churches here, followed by widespread unrest in the provincial capital will now see the match being played without spectators.

The decision came after long, drawn-out negotiations between the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) and their Yemeni counterparts following intervention by world’s football governing body FIFA.

The twin bombings in Lahore’s Youhanabad neighbourhood on Sunday left 15 people dead with more than 70 injured before angry mob took over the streets of the city, tearing down public machinery.

It led to Yemen, 3-1 up from the first leg in Doha on Thursday, missing out on their scheduled training session for Sunday — a point raised by their team doctor Mohammed al-Khumesi.

“One training session isn’t enough to play a game,” he told Dawn on the sidelines of their official pre-game training session on Monday. “Our players might be lacking in fitness.”

He added that the Yemen players were worried due to the uncertainty surrounding the game.

“The players are upset and afraid and I don’t think they are mentally ready to play the game tomorrow. If we will play, it will likely be behind closed doors.”

FIFA security official Adnan El-Zinzi of Egypt, along with the FIFA match commissioner from South Korea, took a look around the Punjab Stadium as Yemen trained with both telling Dawn that “Yemen would make the decision”.

Both were engaged in long discussions with PFF officials present at the venue and there was a lot of pointing towards the stands, indicating they weren’t all to satisfied with the security arrangements at the Punjab Stadium.

“We’ll decide the fate of the game in consultation with the Yemen team,” they told Dawn. “It is most likely that the game will be played behind closed doors.”

It was ultimately left up to the FIFA match commissioner to decide on the fate of the game with the PFF being given three options: to play the game at a neutral venue, behind closed doors or to convince Yemen to play the game with the crowd at the venue.

Yemen had already made up their minds, dealing a blow to the PFF’s plans of filling up the venue for the game in order to boost the Pakistan team who need a 2-0 win to progress to the second round of World Cup qualifying, which merges with qualifying for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup.

“It’s a sad moment for Pakistan football and in general, for sports in Pakistan,” PFF president Faisal Saleh Hayat told Dawn.“The PFF had been trying to bring international sport and teams to the country but unfortunately the timing of the incident has cost us.

“Unfortunately our home tie will be an away tie for us since there will be no fans inside the stadium.”

Earlier, there was doubt whether the match was going to go ahead at all with the match commissioner cancelling the pre-game news conferences of both teams.

But it was later decided that spectators will be barred from attending the game and Pakistan coach Mohammed Al Shamlan said his side will go all out for a victory.

“We have no other option but to win,” he told Dawn before the announcement was made. “We’ll go out with a plan to win 2-0.”

The Bahraini added that he would be making changes in goal for the game after Muzammil Hussain’s mistakes between the posts in the first leg.

“Saqib Hanif will start in goal since Muzammil hasn’t been that good,” Shamlan added, while also indicating he wasn’t too impressed with Denmark-based striker Mohammad Ali.

“Ali isn’t the type of player I expected him to be so we’ll probably start with Mohammad Adil or Mansoor Khan in that position.”

Pakistan held a training session at The City School Ground on Monday with Shamlan said he was “concerned about the fitness” of some of his key players.

He added that there was no use playing a home game with closed doors.

“This probably will suit Yemen more than us,” he said. “We expected the crowd to give us much-needed boost but unfortunately that wouldn’t be the case.”

In another blow to Pakistan football, the Group ‘B’ qualifiers for the AFC U-23 Championship to be hosted in Lahore later this month was also cancelled.

Pakistan were due to face Kuwait, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan in the qualifiers which also serve as preliminaries for the 2016 Rio Olympics.

“The two events [World Cup qualifier and AFC U-23 qualifiers] were a chance for us to ramp up interest in football in the country,” Hayat added. “It’s extremely sad that we’ve missed a huge opportunity due to the law and order situation in the country.”

Published in Dawn March 17th , 2015

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