World Soccer Stars event postponed [Dawn]

KARACHI: Pakistan’s football fans will have to wait a little longer to see Luis Figo, Kaka and Carles Puyol in action. The organisers of the World Soccer Stars event, scheduled to be held later this week and featuring the legendary footballers, announced on Tuesday that a new date will be announced in the second week of June.

“World Soccer Stars tour has taken a strategic decision based on financial reasons with utmost regret, to postpone the World Soccer Stars Pakistan tour,” the organisers said in a statement.

Portugal great Figo, Brazilian superstar Kaka and Spain legend Puyol had visited the country over the last few months along with former French striker Nicolas Anelka as part of promotions for the event while musician Akon was also due to perform at the event.

Four other footballers were also due to be part of the event that featured exhibition matches in Karachi and Lahore on April 27 and 28.

“The decision to postpone has not been taken lightly, given the enthusiasm of the Pakistan football fans when the players visited the country to launch the tour during the first few months of this year,” the organisers added.

“The excitement of the fans was genuine and was truly heartfelt by the players and has only served to motivate us to conduct the tour later. The interest shown by brands, the media, the army and national and local government was appreciated.

“After a review of the situation we took this overarching strategic decision taking into account several factors including the change in the local business economy since the tour was announced, the wish of certain key brands to align the tour with their commercial plans, and so we decided to postpone the tour with dates to be announced in the second week of June.”

In the meantime, the World Soccer Stars organisers announced they will hold trials to finalise local players who will play alongside the football greats.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2019