By our correspondent
KARACHI: Abdul Ghafoor scored twice in the 28th, 79th minute, KESC forced their way to fourth place with 2-1 win over national champions in the 240th and final league match of Pakistan Premier Football League that concluded on Thursday.
WAPDA, who won the National Games football title in Islamabad yesterday, secured the berth in the seventh AFC President’s Cup event.
WAPDA slotted the lone goal through Arif Mehmood in the 85th minute, who won the top-scorer award.
WAPDA finished their campaign with with 67 points in 30 matches while KRL and PIA finished in second and third spot respectively with 58 and 57 points.
KESC secured fourth place with 55 points while Army finished in fifth (54 points). KPT (51) finished sixth, followed by PAF (45), Afghan FC and Navy (both 42 pts) in seventh, eighth and ninth places respectively.
Lahore-based PEL did well to finish tenth. NBP and Baloch FC ended on 11th and 12th place respectively while HBL were 13th.
PMC Athletico drifted away from relegation zone in only their last match on Tuesday at Chaman, leaving newly-promoted SSGC and Young Blood to go down to the PFF League.
Syed Khadim Ali Shah, SVP of SAFF and VP of PFF, was chief guest of the match and presented cash awards and trophies to the teams and players. WAPDA lifted the winning trophy and gold medals in addition to Rs 600,000 while their last edition’s winners KRL had to be content with silver medals and Rs 400,000. PIA got bronze medals and Rs 300,000.
PIA shot-stopper Muhammad Haji was adjudged the Most Valuable Player (MVP) and pocketted Rs 100,000 while leading marksman Arif Mehmood and best goalkeeper Muhammad Omer (KESC) took Rs 50,000 each. In order to promote sportsmanship, the PFF Chief also decided to hand over Rs 100,000 to winner of the Fair Play trophy; Chaman’s Afghan FC.
The Match Commissioner for the final league match was former Pakistani skipper Ali Nawaz while the game was supervised by Jehangir Khan (Quetta), supported on the line by Sattar Badini (Kharan), Shahid Hussain (Okara) and 4th Official Fareed Ahmed (KPT).