LAHORE, March 30: The International Football Federation (FIFA) has approved the Goal Project for Pakistan under which a Football House will be built in Lahore with a grant of US $400,000.

The amount will be released to the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) in instalments after reviewing the phases of construction work of the Football House.

In an exclusive interview with Dawn, the PFF secretary Agha Liaqat Ali said that his body had presented a estimated budget of 29.96 million rupees for the Football House which had been approved by FIFA.

FIFA’s decision on the project was conveyed to PFF officials at the recently held Asian Football Confederation (AFC), meeting in Kuala Lumpur. Besides Pakistan, Goal projects for 23 other countries of Asia and the Central Asian states have also been approved.

The PFF secretary who has been appointed as local coordinator for the FIFA’s coordinator for Asia Manilal Fernando, pointed out that a two storey building will be constructed.

Liaqat said that SAF Gold Cup, which had been postponed from Jan 26 last would now be held next year from Jan 15 to 28 in Bangladesh with the possibility of the venue being shifted to Pakistan or Sri Lanka.

He added that the federation would begin National League as it was facing tremendous pressure from the AFC and the FIFA as well for the revival of the league.

He said that the FIFA had assured him of another additional grant of $1m for the PFF if it would begin the National League in the country.

The FIFA has already allotted $1m for Pakistan of which three instalments of $2,50,000 each had already been received.

Explaining the salient features of the plan, he said, all the districts would hold their own league. The champion club would qualify for the provincial league. In the provincial league, the champion clubs will compete along with some departmental teams which had only the playing rights granted by the federation.

From the provincial league four top teams from Sindh and two each from Punjab, NWFP and Balochsitan would enter the qualifying round of the National League. In the qualifying round, eight departments who had the voting right in the federation will compete along with the teams which would qualify from the provincial league.

The top eight teams of the qualifying round would play the main round of the National League which contains 64 matches. He said that the matches of the main round of national league would be played in all the major cities of the country.

The PFF secretary said that all the expenses of the league from district level to national level would be borne by the federation.

Regarding hosting the AFC Under-20 qualifying round in Karachi in the last week of next month, the PFF secretary said efforts were being made to find a sponsor for the tournament. He said that the federation needs a sizable amount of about Rs 2.5 million to host the event.

He said that Sri Lanka in response to the Pakistan team’s tour to the Island, would send its team to this country in January next year.