LAHORE, Aug 5: Pakistan’s first-ever football academy will start functioning in the last week of this month at Peshawar.

“With the establishment of country’s first-ever football academy the game will be organised on modern lines,” said a spokesman of the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) on Friday.

He said the decision to set up the academy was taking at a meeting held at Pakistan Sports Board (PSB). He said the meeting observed that football, a popular and a common man’s sport across the world was a source of pride for Pakistan once.

The present state of football in Pakistan is regrettably very dismal. PFF has not started taking some remedial measures to revive the game under a long term activity plan.

“Since the game is very popular in NWFP, the province has produced some great footballers in the past, the Government of NWFP has taken the initiative to establish a football academy in Peshawar,” he said.

The proposal of establishing academy at Peshawar was floated by the NWFP Chief Minister Muhammad Akram Durani. In the meeting, it was decided that a committee comprising representatives of Government of NWFP, PSB, PFF and NWFP Football Association will select the boys (Under-13) and (Under-16) at the grassroot level.

“During summer vacations, the training camp of this academy will be shifted to Abbottabad and Swat. Players of the academy will be eligible to participate in Youth Development Programme of PFF,” he maintained.—APP