KARACHI, July 4: Members of the Save Football Movement (SFM) comprising hundreds of Lyari footballers of all ages came together to share their grievances with members of the media outside the Karachi Press Club (KPC) on Friday.

The protest was organised to protest Pakistan Football Federation’s (PFF) turning down the one million rupees challenge thrown by the SFM to take on the national team in a friendly match at the KMC ground here in Karachi last month.

The members burnt an effigy of PFF president Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat, chanted slogans against PFF and accused them of showing indifference towards the footballers of Lyari.

Speaking to the rally, President SFM Abdul Rauf Baloch, who is also UC-10’s Nazim, said: “Our retired national football heroes are leading miserable existences. Players like Captain Omar whose picture used to be printed on match boxes even in India, had to die in misery due to federation’s lack of care for its old players.”