Pakistan may train in Thailand for Asian Games [The News]

Pakistan may train in Thailand for Asian Games [The News]

Sports Correspondent – The News

KARACHI: After the forthcoming tours of India and Bahrain, Pakistan football team is also expected to hold a week-long camp in Thailand ahead of the Asian Games which would be held in the Incheon (South Korea) from September 19 to October 4.

 “It has not been confirmed yet but effort is being made to make such a tour possible after the tours of India and Bahrain,” Pakistan Football Federation’s (PFF) secretary Col Ahmed Yar Lodhi told ‘The News’ on Friday.

 “We are in contact with both Thailand and Singapore. But there is better chance of our tour to Thailand as our president Faisal Saleh Hayat has good relationship with the chief of the Football Association of Thailand,” Lodhi said.

 “Our plan is to move to Incheon from Thailand as we should be in South Korea at least five days before the formal opening of the Asian Games,” he revealed.

 Pakistan will face India on August 17 and 20 in Bangalore in the two-match series. After that they will fly out for Bahrain to play a game against the hosts on August 25. “Our one match against Bahrain will be on August 25 while there is also a chance that we may play against them another match also,” he added.

 Pakistan team will resume its preparation for the said tours in the first week of August.

 Pakistan’s Bahraini coach Mohammed Shamlan, who is spending Ramadan with his family in Manama, will return on August 4 to look after the camp which had been disbanded after Pakistan’s tour of Indonesia last month where the Greenshirts were thrashed by the hosts 4-0 in their one-off test.