Lahore, 12 Jan: Pakistan Football Federation has approved Model Town Footbll Academy (MTFA) Ground for National Camp in the build up of Pakistan Youth team to appear in the 2012 Olympic football Asian qualifying tournament. The Camp will be installed from 15 January to 4 February 2011 at the famous soccer Academy, located at Model Town C & D Block, Lahore. All players participating in the preliminary and final competitions of the Tournament shall be born on or after 1 January 1989. However, a maximum of three male players who do not meet this age limit may also be included in the list of players for the final competition only.
The 2012 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXX Olympiad, are scheduled to take place in London, United Kingdom, from 27 July to 12 August 2012. London will become the first city to officially host the modern Olympic Games three times, having previously done so in 1908 and in 1948.
Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has confirmed Asian entries for the qualifying rounds of the London Olympics Football. Thirty-four teams, including Pakistan, will fight it out for three (or four) spots in the men’s competition.
Pakistan, gold medallist in age-limit events of SA Games at Islamabad 2004 and Colombo 2006, have been pitted against Malaysia – the first-ever meeting between the two countries at Olympic level with the first leg to be played in Kuala Lumpur on 23 Feb 2011 and the return leg in Pakistan on 9 March 2011. Both the nations faced each other six times in national level with matches recorded as FIFA-recognized internationals.
The coming tie is one that Malaysian Youth will fancy winning as they are in fine touch. They are currently champions of both event in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations,[commonly abbreviated ASEAN. Their coach Rajagopal Krishnasamy is best-known for guiding Malaysia’s Under-23 side to its first gold medal in 20 years at the 2009 Southeast Asian (SEA) Asian Games in Laos where the team defeated Vietnam 1-0 in the final on December. Rajagopal, former striker with 20 international caps in early eighties, is also coach of National team that beat neighbor Indonesia 4-2 on aggregate in the two-match final to win the ASEAN Suzuki Cup— South East Asia’s premier tournament —for the first time. The final was played over two legs on 26 December 2010 and 29 December 2010.
The second round of Olympic Qualifiers is scheduled for 19 and 23 June where Asia’s 13 highest ranked teams will join the eleven winners from round 1.The twelve winners from the second round will be drawn into three groups of four teams each, playing six matches from 21 Sep 2011 to 14 March 2012.
The top team in each group will automatically earn a place in the 2012 London Olympics while the runners-up in each group will then compete in a play-off at neutral venue. The playoff winners will advance to another playoff against the fourth-ranked African team for a berth at London 2012.