Bahrain FA chief assures support to PFF

LAHORE - The Bahrain Football Association (BFA)'s President Shaikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa has appreciated the football promotion work of Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) under the leadership of Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat during his visit to Pakistan on Sunday. Faisal met BFA Chief for discussion on promotion of soccer and exchange of visits of men, women teams besides courses of refereeing, coaches and administrators. Salman congratulated Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat for introduction of National Women Football Club Championship and re-introduction of National Football Challenge Cup. "Faisal's commitment as PFF Chief is triumph for Pakistan's players, coaches, referees and administrators. The international football family stands solidly behind PFF for its tremendous accomplishment in such a short span of time. The availability of high-grade FIFA Football House, getting hosting rights of AFC events regularly, launching of Two-tier Pakistan Premier League, Women Soccer, Vision Asia, AFC AID-27 Coaches Scheme etc are some of the many milestones in Faisal's tenure and due to his fine dedication, commitment AFC had designated him AFC Disciplinary Committee member," said Salman who is also Chairman of AFC Disciplinary Committee. He assured that Manama-based BFA is ready to help PFF in promoting soccer in Pakistan and negotiations in sending Bahraini team to Pakistan are underway. The climate of both Bahrain and Pakistan is similar but the game plan and techniques of both teams are different and Pakistani footballers will learn a lot from Bahrain in the way of playing as currently they are 74th in FIFA World Ranking," stated Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat who added that this is really healthy sign for PFF that a country, currently seventh in Asia, and which was on the verge of earning berth in last World Cup 2006 and having 11-Bahrain based FIFA Referees, took interest in PFF for aiming at cementing relations between national football bodies of two nations. The soccer enthusiasts of Pakistan are hoping and believe that Faisal Saleh Hayat's efforts in forging effective alliance and co-operation between respective National Associations will be instrumental in raising the standard and professionalism of soccer in all disciplines of the game in Pakistan in the future. Faisal's visit to BFA on 11-12 September 2005 turned out to be successful as BFA and General Organization for Youth Affairs, Bahrain decided to give Pakistan coaches. One of them, Salman Ahmed Sharida showed his class and helped Pakistan win the gold in 10th South Asian Games at Colombo 2006. Becoming 17th PFF President on 28 August 2003, Faisal, earlier visited Turkey, Romania, England, Bahrain, Iran, Morocco and exchanged views with several officials for football promotion in Pakistan. It was first time in PFF's 62-year history that a PFF President spared his precious time from his hectic officed assignments, and visited countries to seek their help for football promotion in Pakistan. BFA Chief finally sent Good Luck message to Pakistan team and new coach Georg Kottan (Austria) for the third AFC Challenge Cup Qualifier where Pakistan would meet host Chinese Taipei, Sri Lanka and Brunei Darussalam in April 2009.