LAHORE     -          The National Challenge Cup to kick off in January 2023 and in this respect, departmental teams expressed tremendous excitement during the inaugural meeting organized by Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) in a local hotel on Friday. Addressing the participants, representing their respective departments, PFF NC Chairman Haroon Ahmad Malik acknowledged the commendable contribution of departments for keeping the sports alive. “The departments not only provided bread and butter to thousands of young athletes but also kept pumping fresh blood into the national teams of Pakistan for many decades.” NC member Shahid Niaz Khokhar said after exploring the international avenues, the PFF has taken the task to bring the local football activities back on track. The National Challenge Cup will be the first major national event which will be held by PFF in January after an undesired stoppage of the game in March 2021.