Pakistan will make an attempt to earn slot in Mexico's 14th FIFA U-17 World Cup 2011 when they will appear in qualifying phase of 14th AFC U-16 Championship Qualifiers in November 2009. The players born on or after 1st January 1993, will be eligible to play in the qualifiers, slated to run from 3-18 October 2009 all around Asia.
The AFC U-16 show, which is held every two years, also acts as a qualifying tournament for the U-17 World Cup - world championship of association football for players under the age of 17 organised by FIFA. Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) has asked Operation Wing to call as many teams as they could for National U-15 Championship next year to get the abundance of talented players of required age-limit.
"The AFC U-16 Championship was set up to provide another tier of competitive international football in Asia with the aim of developing young playing talent in the region. Pakistan is comprised of fine footballers at grass-root level and players who represented U-13, U-14 teams from 2004 to 2008 will soon be part of U-16 teams.
We put up fine display in the 2007 edition, outplaying Kyrgyzstan 4-2 and narrowly lost to Qatar and Yemen 0-1 at Qatar," said PHF spokesman while quoting its chief Faisal Saleh Hayat. Faisal added that Pakistan also got the honour of playing the 16-team Asian finals at Al Shabab stadia, Dubai (U.A.E) six years ago.
Upto 45 teams of AFC are expected to be drawn from the pots and put into eight sections, divided into six technical levels on ranking based from the AFC U-16 Championship 2008. The winners and runners-up of the seven groups qualify for the finals alongwith the winner of a three-team Group. The host team will earn automatic entry.
PFF President is very serious about Youth Development Soccer and he is concentrating hard on every age-limit's International events, making sure participation in every annual and biennial event of AFC. "Asian U16 show is also launching pad for young footballer to stamp their authority, grow further, occupy bigger stage as they move deeper into adulthood.
Several players who represented Pakistan in 2002 and 2007 are now part of well-known organisations and national team," said Faisal who also quoted examples of Bilal Rafiq, Imran Hashmi, Haji Muhammad who joined PIA while Muhammad Ahmed (KRL), Jadeed Khan (Afghan FC), Jaffar Ali, Khalid Munir (Army), Arif Mehmood (Wapda), Muhammad Ishtiaq (HBL), Abbas Ali (NBP), Javed Hamza (KESC) are other examples of how important is AFC U-16 event.
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