KARACHI, March 10: Karachi Port Trust (KPT) and Pakistan Steel will lock horns on the opening day of the KPT National Football Challenge Cup at the KPT Football Stadium at 4.15pm on Sunday.
Pakistan Football Federation’s (PFF) mega annual event is being sponsored by KPT this time as a part of their 125-year celebrations.
The 16 teams taking part in it have been divided into four groups. Group ‘A’ comprises Wapda, Navy, ASM Bahalwalpur and National Youth ‘B’ teams while Group ‘B’ is made up of KESC, KPT, Pakistan Steel and GPA Gawadar.
KRL, NBP, Police and National Youth ‘A’ are in Group ‘C’ while Group ‘D’ has Army, PAF, PPWD and Railways.
The group matches will be followed by quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final on March 23.
Giving details about the current edition to the media at a press conference held here, PFF’s General Secretary Lt Col (retd) Ahmed Yar Khan Lodhi informed that this was the first time that the federation was inducting two youth teams into the tournament.
The step has been taken as a part of the PFF’s Fast Track Training Programme under which outfits of different age groups will undergo training at regular intervals throughout the year.
“Recognising the great potential in our youth, the PFF has decided to also let them participate in the event and benefit from the experience and exposure at hand.
“Apart from encouraging these players, the gesture will also help in keeping our best talent in form,” said Lodhi before announcing the prize money for the Challenge Cup.
The winning team will receive Rs300,000, the runners-up Rs200,000 and third-position holders Rs100,000.
An amount of Rs30,000 has also been kept aside as the fair play prize. Apart from this, there are individual prizes, too, for the best goalkeeper (Rs20,000), best player of tournament (Rs25,000) and maximum goal scorer (Rs20,000). The federation besides this has also introduced the best referee award of Rs20,000 and best assistant referee award of Rs10,000.
The matches will be played at KPT Stadium and Peoples Sports Complex.
Meanwhile, it was also announced that FIFA has given a go-ahead signal to its Pakistan chapter for the construction of the first Goal Project in Karachi.
A similar project is also underway in Peshawar.
The press conference was also attended by KPT’s General Manager Operations Rear Admiral Azhar Hayat, their Manager Sports Shah Naeem Zafar, Sindh Football Association’s (SFA) President Syed Khadim Ali Shah and PFF’s Director Development and Competitions Wing Commander (Retd) Pervaiz Saeed Mir.—Sports Reporter
