Lahore, 23 April : Pakistan’s coach Mian Abdul Bari and Referee Muhammad Kareem are attending International football and Coaching Course currently in progress under Japanese Football Association (JFA) at J-Village and J-Step.
Kareem, one of AFC AID -27 coaches in Pakistan, is among 24 participants who are participating in JFA International Coaching Course at J.Village, located in Naraha, Fukushima Prefecture. Meanwhile, former FIFA Referee Mian Abdul Bari had been picked up by Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) to attend JFA International Referee Instructor Course for the Member Associations of AFC.
Besides Quetta-based Kareem, other coaches in the Course came from various countries affiliated with AFC. Like Pakistan, Bhutan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Nepal, Philippines, United Arab Emirates and Yemen had sent one coach for the Course while two coaches are representing Chinese Taipei, Guam, Iran, Hong Kong, Maldives, Palestine, Sri Lanka and Thailand. The seven-day coaching course will conclude on Friday, 25 April while Referee Instructor Course will come to conclusion on Saturday, 26 April.
“There is lot of improvement in Pakistan football since arrival of Faisal Saleh Hayat at the helm of the soccer affairs. PFF feel proud that their coach and referee had been called by JFA’s President Saburo Kawabuchi. Such a call from a big soccer nation was unheard before 2003 which shows that Pakistan is creating positive image around the globe as far as football is concerned,” said Khanewal-born Bari who was Match Commissioner during 19th National U18 Championship at Lahore’s Model Town FA Ground last year and 7th National U14 Festival of Football at Sahiwal this year.
Other participants in Referee Instructor Course are Australia’s Richard Clive Mackillop, Bangladesh’s Mr. Mohammad Abdul Azad Mansur, SD Badruddin, Bhutan’s Gagan Rai, Chinese Taipei’s Mu-sheng Yang, Bang-dar Leu, Guam’s George Bernard Stewart, Hong Kong’s Po On Andy Wong, Yau Fat Jame Fong, India’s Ravishankar Jayaraman, Sumanta Kumar Ghosh, Jordan’s Ismail Alhafi , Korea Republic’s Kim Dae-Young, Chi-Don Kang, Maldives’s Ahmed Abeer Ismail, Mohamed Saeed, Nepal’s Gyanu Raja Shrestha,
Philippines’s Jaime Nicolau, Roy Dexter Villaranda, Qatar’s Jassim Al-Hail, Singapore’s Mohd Ali Samad, Sri Lanka’s Arambekade Deshapriya, Keerthi Indrajith Dissanayake and Yemen’s Naji Ahmed Hasan Ali