LAHORE, July 2: The Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) hopes that the 27 coaches working for the Asian Football Confederation’s (AFC) AID-27 Financial Assistance Scheme to unearth hidden football talent in Pakistan would also contribute to the overall development of the game.

This was said by PFF President Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat at the conclusion of the two-day AFC coaches’ seminar at the FIFA Football House in Lahore on Wednesday.

“It’s now easier than ever to become a qualified football coach.

“By getting on the coaching ladder, individuals have the opportunity to progress through the various AFC Coaching qualifications while constantly enhancing their knowledge and skill. To be successful as a coach, you should always be open to new ideas,” said the PFF chief.

The PFF president also said that that the federation will soon be establishing Football Youth Development Centres (FYDC) in order to make the plan successful.

“We have pinned our hopes on them [the coaches] to identify future stars and to make our Vision 2020 successful and are looking towards them to bring fire into Pakistan soccer in order to find a spot in bigger events such as the World Cup, Olympics and the Asia Cup,” Faisal asserted.

The quarterly meeting was held to review the work of the youth football coaches during the past three months.

Pakistan Army’s Haji Abdul Sattar, who steered the winning goal in the SAFF Games final in 1989 to carry off a 1-0 win against Bangladesh at Islamabad and Zafar Iqbal, Pakistan’s skipper in the 1993 SAFF Championship, were also among the coaches called for the meeting along with the other 25 coaches namely Bilal Ahmed Butt, Nauman Ibrahim, Rana Zahir Ahmed, Tanveer Ahmed, Mohammad Habib, Shahzad Anwar, Sajjad Mahmood Khan, Mohammad Rashid, Hassan Baloch, Nasir Ismail, Salim Patni, Niaz Ahmed Abro, Abdul Karim, Najibullah Najmi, Gohar Zaman, Qazi Wajid Ali, Fazle Ghaffar, Saeedullah, Faisal Amir Ahmed Khan, Mohammad Saleem, Haji Mohammad Aslam, Mohammad Asghar (Quetta), Iftikhar Ahmed Ghani, Mohammad Asghar (Lahore) and Mohammad Siddique.—APP