PFF and Zavisa to discuss AFC qualifiers plan

PFF and Zavisa to discuss AFC qualifiers plan

KARACHI: Top officials of the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) and coach Zavisa Milosavljevic will sit together next week to devise a plan for the senior team for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Challenge Cup Qualifiers, which will be held in March next year at a venue yet to be decided.

Zavisa, whose Under-22 team failed to click in the 2013 Asian Cup Qualifiers in Riyadh recently, wants to hold the camp for the next year’s qualifiers after Ramadan.

He wants to form a better senior lot for the purpose and is expected to induct five or six foreign-based players in the team.

“Definitely I will try to include a few foreign-based players in the team as it will help us form a fighting side for the qualifiers which is an important event,” the Serbian told ‘The News’ on Friday after his return to Lahore along with the Under-22 team which finished last in the six-team pool in the Asian Cup Qualifiers in Saudi Arabia.

He said that he would also like his senior team to play international friendlies on all FIFA days in August, September, October and November.

About the performance of his team in the Asian Cup Qualifiers, he said that he would prepare a report and submit it to the PFF next week.

He said that he would also consider how many players of the Under-22 team were capable to play for the senior team.

Pakistan senior team, under Zavisa, last played in the SAFF Championship in New Delhi in December 2011 where the team could not perform, as all their three group matches ended in draw.

The coach is also expected to share with the PFF what they should do for bringing improvement in the standard of football in the country.

Zavisa is expected to go home at the end of this month to spend a few days with his family in his hometown in Serbia.

Meanwhile, sources said that Pakistan Under-22 team skipper Kaleemullah looked very depressed when the team was coming out of the Allama Iqbal Internatioanl Airport in lahore on its return from Saudi Arabia on Friday morning.

Kaleem came under scathing criticism from his coach during the tournament for his poor display both as a player and captain. Later he got unfit and missed a few games. The colts failed to score any goal in the entire tournament and conceded eight in the process.

[The News]