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LAHORE Pakistan Football Federation's (PFF) President Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat has approved Lahore as host of 20th National U19 Soccer Championship.
The team of Lahore District Football Association (LDFA) will face stiff competition from fifteen junior teams from across the country when 12-day event kicks off on Saturday, 3 October 2009 at various grounds of Lahore
Hayat, who chaired the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Disciplinary Committee meet on 29 September, has asked the PFF Operation Wing to take the event seriously and discourage over-age players as it is part of Youth Development Program in order to tap fresh talent for future PFF assignments. The players born on or after 1 January 1991 will be eligible to play in coming event which will conclude on 14 October.
The 20th edition of National U19 Championship 2009 will also help PFF in forming a strong Pakistan team which will take on tough opponents Iran, Lebanon, Maldives, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in 36th AFC U19 Championship (Group-D) December 8-18, 2009.
Balochistan, along with Karachi and Railways, have the honor of winning the National Youth Soccer title three times while Army and Dhaka clinched the gold twice. It may be recalled that Karachi and Dhaka, now capital of Bangladesh, were once joint winners in 1966. The teams winning the event once are Sargodha, Multan, Rawalpindi, Punjab, Pakistan Steel and Faisalabad.
Balochistan look in great shape to win their fourth title as their main rivals Karachi and Railways are no more in the event. The financial problems forced Pakistan Railways Sports Board not to enter the team while Karachis players are representing Sindh team.
The U19 event provides launching pad for soccer stars of tomorrow. Often, some of the biggest names in the Pakistan football make their first mark in this competition before getting their national colors.
These include Chaudhry Asghar, Yunus Changezi (1964), Ali Nawaz (1966), Akbar Raisani, Muhammad Ali Shah (1972), Naushad Baloch, Mukhtar Ali (1979), Sharafat Ali, Khalid Mehmood, Jamshed Rana (1981), Mateen Akhter, Fayyaz Siddiqui (1982), Haji Sattar, Fidaur Rehman, Tariq Hussain, Abdul Wahid (1985), Qazi Ashfaq, Zahid Luqman, Imtiaz Butt, Nauman Ibrahim (1990), Haroon Yusuf, Hafeez Malik (1993), Babar Mehmood, Shaukat Ali (1994), Muhammad Ahmed, Abbas Ali, Imran Hussain (2004).
National Youth Football Championship Roll of Honor
1964 Dhaka
1966 Dhaka / Karachi
1968 Karachi
1972 Sargodha
1979 Balochistan White
1980 Balochistan Red
1981 Multan
1982 Pakistan Railways
1983 Pakistan Railways
1984 Rawalpindi
1985 Pakistan Railways
1986 Pakistan Steel
1987 Karachi South
1990 Faisalabad
1993 Punjab Reds
1994 Pakistan Army
2004 Pakistan Army
2005 Balochistan
2007 Faisalabad Yellow
