‘First AFC Football Challenge Cup next year’

PESHAWAR—President Pakistan Football Federation Faisal Saleh Hayat has assured that Pakistan Football team will take part in inaugural AFC Challenge Cup next year.
There will be no compromise as for as the participation of the teams in various international events of AFC or FIFA, the two controlling bodies of Football internationally, Faisal was quoted to as said.
“We will not look to the past where national side missed the participation in 1995 SAF Games and Sydney Olympic 2000 qualifiers as we are eager to improve the overall standard of the game in Pakistan for which international exposure is the key”, Faisal added in a PFF media release issued here Sunday.
PFF wants to keep up pace with other 206 members of FIFA for which it is essential that Pakistan should appear in every assignments of AFC and FIFA, he said. Asian Football Confederation (AFC) plans to launch AFC Challenge Cup in efforts to develop the game in the continent’s ‘emerging’ football nations.
Unlike the AFC Presidents Cup, the AFC Challenge Cup is a competition for national teams. The AFC already holds the President’s Cup for clubs from smaller football playing nations at Kathmandu last May. Tajikistan’s Regar TadAZ took the winner trophy.
The competition will feature national teams of 17 countries and will be held on a biennial basis in a single country, with all expenses to be borne by AFC.
Bangladesh, Nepal and India have already shown their interest to host the inaugural edition. There will be no qualifying encounters and all 17 teams will go directly into the competition.
PFF Chief praised the effort of AFC for launching a new event, which could prove beneficial for improving the overall set up of the game among the participating countries in Asia.
It is hoped that the new competition will enlarge awareness about football in these countries and accelerate the game’s development there, he said.
The nations that have been selected to compete in the AFC Challenge Cup, besides Pakistan, are Afghanistan, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, Guam, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Macau, Mongolia, Nepal, Palestine, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tajikistan and Timor Leste.
AFC has divided its 45-member nations into three different levels and created club competitions for each level. The top 14 ‘mature’ associations play in the AFC Champions League, the next 14 ‘developing’ associations compete in the AFC Cup and the remaining 17 ‘emerging’ association are to take part in the AFC President’s Cup.—PR