Lahore, 17 Jan : Thirty one players reported in the National Camp that commence on Monday in the build up for the Pakistan Youth team to appear in the 2012 Olympic football Asian qualifying tournament. The Camp will run until 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 remaining 15 players are expected to join the Camp on Tuesday morning.
Pakistan Football Federation (PFF)’s President Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat has approved forthy-six players in the build up for the National Youth team to appear in the 2012 Olympic football Asian qualifying tournament. Tariq Lutfi is supervising the camp, assisted by Gohar Zaman, one of the hat-trick makers for Pakistan in international circuit who was declared best Match Commissioner of PPFL 2010.
Pakistan have been pitted against Malaysia with the first leg to be played in Kuala Lumpur on 23 Feb 2011 and the return leg in Pakistan on 9 March 2011.
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 playoff at neutral venue.The playoff winners will advance to another playoff against the fourth-ranked African team for a berth at London 2012.
The 31 probables reported at MTFA on morning were :
Muzammil Hussain, Muhammad Tausif, Haider Ali, Arif Hussain, Usman Manzoor, Saddam Hussain, Bilal Rafiq, Ali Ehsan, Muhammad Haji, Hussnain Abbas, Zeeshan Ali, Muhammad Imran, Amir Luqman, Muhammad Adil, Kalim Ullah, Zia Us Salam, Rizwan Asif, Ghazanfar Abbas, Muhammad Rashid, Muhammad Mujahid,Ubaid Ullah, Naveed Ahmed, Saeed Sheikh, Fahad Ullah Khan, Tanveer Mumtaz, Alamgir Khan,
Faisal Iqbal, Asim Mansoor, Sana Ullah, Muhammad Qais, Muhammad Idrees