PESHAWAR: The latest edition of the National Challenge Cup kicks off on Friday in Peshawar in the backdrop of the impending arrival of a normalisation committee to take over the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) affairs.

Announcing the details of the Rs1.2million tournament on Tuesday, PFF senior vice-president Syed Zahir Ali Shah said that this was only the beginning of a “series of football activities in Pakistan” despite global body having announced earlier this month that footballing affairs in the country would be the responsibility of the normalisation committee which is expected to come into force by September.

Zahir is a member of the PFF body recognised in the country, which came into power following an election in December last year on the orders of the Supreme Court which saw Syed Ashfaq Hussain Shah elected president. That election came at the end of a years-long legal battle for PFF control with FIFA recognising the body led by Faisal Saleh Hayat.

FIFA’s decision to appoint a normalisation committee for the PFF is to end the dispute once and for all with the committee’s main function to hold fresh elections of the country’s football governing body. The dispute had extended to the players who were divided between the two groups in the recent 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying round fixtures against Cambodia after both factions had organised training camps.

Eventually the players who were in the camp organised by Hayat were able to take part in the two-legged tie against Cambodia, which Pakistan lost, but the Ashfaq group said it had let those players off with a warning and they were free to participate with their teams in the Challenge Cup.

“Those players have been sent showcause notices and advised not to go to the wrong side otherwise strict action would be taken,” said Zahir.

“It is the responsibility of the players to judge which is the actually representative body.”

Zahir announced that the matches of the Challenge Cup will be held at the Tehmas Football Stadium with 16 teams including Pakistan Army, Pakistan Navy, Pakistan Air Force, Khan Research Laboratories, Pakistan Railways, Sui Southern Gas Company, National Bank of Pakistan, Wapda, Masha United, Ashraf Sugar Mills, Pakistan Television, Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority, PAF Tigers, Karachi Port Trust, Pakistan Police and Karachi United taking part.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2019