LAHORE Midfielder Syed Raza, who led WAPDA's understrength team to fourth place at Hyderabad's 19th NBP National Football Challenge Cup last month, is among the 23-player squad named for the 5th AFC President's Cup Qualifier 2009 by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) confirmed the six Group-A matches will be played from 14-18 May 2009.
It will be the third appearance of Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), seven-times winner of National Championship in 1983, 1991, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008, in AFC event after 2005 and 2008.
Pakistan Army had represented Pakistan in annual show in 2006 and 2007 at Kuching and Lahore respectively. WAPDA earned passage into the 11-team show when they topped Pakistan Premier Football League 2008 at the Rawalpindi Army Sports Complex last December, thus becoming 54th National Champion of Pakistan.
WAPDA will take on two-times AFC President's Cup Gold Medalist Regar-TadAZ (Tajikistan) when KathmanduIs Dashrath Stadium, will hold the opening match on 14 May 2009. It will be a repeat of the 2008 edition when WAPDA will tackle the same opposition in Petaling Gaya (Selangor) last year.
Former runners-up and hosts Nepal Police Club and Taiwan Power Company (Chinese Taipei) are other teams.
NPC has been representing Nepal for the last three years due to absence of the national league for more than two years. The club deservedly competed in the edition 2007 as the winner of the national league but has been getting a default entry for the last two years.
Midfielder Zahid Hameed, who led Pakistan in SAFF Championship 2008 regained his place after missing 2008 show, while Chaman-born international Jadeed Khan will make debut for WAPDA.
All the 18 players who played 2008 edition in Malaysia's at MBPJ Stadium are being retained.
The 23 players registered by AFC for Kathmandu event are
Goalkeepers (2) Abdul Aziz (Karachi), Luqman Rasheed (Gujranwala)
Defenders (8) Jamshed Anwar (Faisalabad), Tanveer Ahmed (Nawabshah) Naveed Akram (Multan), Dilshad Ali (Quetta), Adeel Riaz (Sialkot), Zeeshan Aslam (Toba Tek Singh), Akram Masih (Gujranwala), Ashaq Ahmed (Sahiwal)
Midfielders (7) Zahid Hameed, Syed Raza, Zakir Hussain (Quetta), Mehmood Ali (Quetta), Yasir Iqbal (Toba Tek Singh), Mohammad Shahid (Bahawalpur), Imran Niazi (D.I Khan)
Strikers (6) Qamar Zaman (Dera Ismail Khan), Khuda Bakhsh (Jacobabad), Arif Mehmood (Multan), Zulfiqar Ali Shah (Jacobabad), Jadeed Khan (Chaman), Abdul Abbas (Faisalabad).
