PAF To Face Asia Gee Mills In PFF National Challenge Football Cup Opener On Friday

Pakistan Air Force will face Asia Gee Mills in the opening match of the Pakistan Football Federation 28th National Challenge Football Cup to be commencing from Friday at Tehmas Khan Football Stadium

PESHAWAR, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Jul, 2019 ):Pakistan Air Force will face Asia Gee Mills in the opening match of the Pakistan Football Federation 28th National Challenge Football Cup to be commencing from Friday at Tehmas Khan Football Stadium.

The draws of the prestigious National Challenge Cup, launched in way back 1979 by Pakistan Football Federation, opened up on Thursday with organizing Secretary of the Cup and former international footballer Basit Kamal and Managers of all the participating teams were also present.

It would be the 28th edition as it will be the first occasion that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is holding the National Challenge Cup earlier all the other cities including Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad organized the Cup, carrying Rs. 1.2 million prize money.

A total of 15 departmental teams and one team of the PFF Tigers vie for the top honor. The teams have been divided in four different groups and two top teams of each group will qualify for the quarter-finals before the semi-finals and final.

Chairman KP Football Association and former Health Minister KP Syed Zahir Ali Shah disclosed that since 1979 the PFF National Challenge Football Cup is regularly being organized by Pakistan Football Federation but due to ongoing power war between two groups one led by Faisal Saleh Hayat and the other Syed Ishfaq Ali Shah, the National Cup was not held since 2008.

He said for engaging players from all across Pakistan, the decision was taken to have a national level event in Peshawar.

He said a total of 16 top teams will be taking part in the National Challenge Cup with teams comprising Pakistan Army, Navy, PAF, KRL, Railways, SSGC, ANP, Masha United, Asian Sugar Mill, PTV, PCAA, Wapda, PAF Tigers, KPT, Police and Karachi United.

The winner would be awarded Rs. 500,000, the runners-up team would get Rs. 300,000 and the third position team would be awarded Rs. 200,000 as cash prizes. The winner of the fair play trophy would be awarded Rs. 70,000, best player (Rs. 40,000), while best goal, best scorer, and best emerging players would be awarded Rs. 30,000 each.

The teams have already arrived and did their practice session over the in Qayyum Sports Complex and Tehmas Khan Football Stadium. On Friday first match will be played at 5.00 p.m while the second and opening match will be played under the floodlight at 8.00 p.m.

Syed Zahir Ali Shah expressed the hope that the fans of football would see top players in action during the toughest contests of the country besides provide an opportunity to the youngsters to see and learn from their experience.

Group-A: Pakistan Air Force, National Bank of Pakistan, Pakistan Police and AGM.

Group-B: Sui Southern Gas Company, Pakistan Navy and Pakistan Television Group-C: Pakistan Army, PLAA, Pakistan Railways, PFF Tigers Group-D:Khan Research Lab (KRL), Pakistan Wapda, Karachi Port Trust and Karachi United