LAHORE, Oct 30: Pakistan will not miss any competition of FIFA or AFC in future to improve the skills of players and keep pace with other 206 members of the game’s world governing body.

President Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat said on Sunday.

The president said in the past the federation had missed out the participation in SAF Games-95 and Sydney Olympic-2000 qualifying round, but now it would not happen.

The president said that the participation was also necessary for Pakistan to improve the international ranking.

PFF president praised the efforts of AFC for launching a new event for 17 emerging countries and hoped the event would enlarge awareness about football in these countries and accelerate the game’s development there.

The AFC plans to launch AFC Challenge Cup in efforts to develop the game in the continent’s ‘emerging’ football nations. The competition will feature national teams of 17 countries and will be held on a biennial basis in a single country, with all expenses to be borne by AFC. Bangladesh, Nepal and India have already shown their interest to host the inaugural edition. The nations that have been selected to compete in the AFC Challenge Cup, besides Pakistan, are Afghanistan, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, Guam, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Macau, Mongolia, Nepal, Palestine, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tajikistan and Timor.