True although Singapore used 4 senior players in this game and some of the newly recruited European based Pakistani players haven't arrived yet acc. to this article http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-10-143430-Pakistan-go-down-against-Singapores They will have 2 days to get their act together before facing a Singapore men's team that is aching to win a game after a series of not so impressive string of friendlies prior to the start of the AFF Suzuki Cup. I don't know about the Pakistani league in 2010 but early this year there has been calls in Pakistan to follow the Philippine example of reviving football domestically by recruiting players of Pakistani descent from abroad to strengthen their national team as is brought up in this article: http://www.footballpakistan.com/2012/03/pak-football-team-needs-a-proper-manager/ In the Philippines, the national team's success has brought a lot of money into the football league and for grassroots development which has helped improved the standard of football at every level. The difference is that the Philippines have a year long football league schedule that is expanding every year compared to the short 4 month schedule in Pakistan. It is possible that if Pakistan succeeds with its program that it will attract sponsors and a national tv broadcasting contract to their league just like it has in the Philippines so they can adopt a longer league schedule. BTW, I heard that India's league does not have a national tv contract for football. Have you guys been able to remedy that or do the tv networks only recognize cricket as a viable advertising medium?
I go with what wikipedia said and it said "first proper professional inter-city football league of Pakistan". It seemed to be going well.
That's what i read aswell, but I can only think it wasn't going well as it's never happened since 2010. It appeared to be a league based in one host city, but i can't think of what players would have played if they were already at PPL teams. The idea seemed fine with regional based clubs rather than the company teams that PPL have, but doesn't appear to have worked.
I just think it was supposed to be something like what Afghanistan have now but the Geo League never got support (APL games were full... Geo matches I saw barely had a crowd). Also the league was not long enough as well. I am just going to guess (and probably be correct) and say that it was all about the PFF not having money to expand the league and the the PPL was more cheaper.
I think the league was the idea of the GEO television channel. PFF didn't have a problem with it and sanctioned it - i guess they got some money off the back of it, not that this would have filtered through. Football in Pakistan is hard. There's no real infrastructure. But back in 2008, it was the same in Thailand. They hired a foriegn coach (Peter Reid) who drew up the plan that the league is thriving on today. What FAT never understood is that there is huge potiental outside of Bangkok (in this case for Pakistan out of the big cities) and that the footballers all come from outside the city. Now football in the provinces has really taken off and this can be seen at the top level with the changing sides. It's unfortunate that Pakistan hire a foriegn coach for the national team, but appears he/or they won't allow any time to look at the footballing roots of the country. Until they do this, it will be forever the sorry state that it is. But it might all improve if Pakistan ever had a good run at SAFF Championship. To improve domestic football, they might just have to win this first.
Very unlikely, but for football to wake up in that country, this is what they would need. Even playing at AFC Cup level is a goal that they need to look at.Surely themelves and even Bangladesh most look at themselves and think how can a small nation like Maldives be at this level and they aren't? Most of its organsation. Once they get this simple procedure in place, then anything could happen.
Excellent example. Hell I will look at Afghanistan and see how they started a successful football league. Its amazing really. And its not as if Pakistan is a bad place, I have been there and it was amazing. Football even has support among kids there. For me the PFF should try doing a talent search which extends outside of the big cities. Then have a tournament featuring the best from the talent search and then have try doing what Singapore did with there youth and have the youth team join a foreign league. Obviously India is out of the question but maybe Nepal or maybe go more Western and go to Uzbekistan or Turk.
So, the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Football Tournament 2012 was inaugurated yesterday. The matches are being held at the shiny new Jayathilake Sports Complex, where apparently the Sri Lankan national football team's matches will be held in the future. This is an invitational U-23 tournament organised by the Sri Lankan FA, and is planned to be held annually, with Maldives hosting it in 2013. The fixtures and results are as follows: 3rd December - Sri Lanka 0-3 Maldives - Pakistan 1-0 Bangladesh 5th December - Pakistan vs Maldives - Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh 7th December - Maldives vs Bangladesh - Sri Lanka vs Pakistan 9th December - Final (1st placed team vs 2nd placed team)
I wonder why its a u23 event... would of been good to bring your strongest team to start preparing for the qualifiers in March (Challenge Cup)
Not an excuse as all national team players have to play for there respective clubs, but yeah my opinion was about the fact that it would of been good had the best team participated.
Well to be honest I really think that for these guys U23 is good. I know playing seniors would bring the perfect chance to gain in FIFA rankings but remember that the youth of these countries are the future. The more games for youth the better.
The tournament is going to be used by the Sri Lankan FA to draft younger players into their ageing national team before the Challenge Cup qualifiers. I'm guessing the other participants will follow suit. In any case, I think it's about time for SAFF nations to give more priority to their junior age groups and give them more game time.
Maldives 1-0 Pakistan Sri Lanka 1-0 Bangladesh Maldives guaranteed a spot in the finals, Sri Lanka and Pakistan to battle it out in a winner-takes-all match and Bangladesh dumped out.
Pakistan 1-2 Maldives Maldives crowned champions after a gruelling match with 12 minutes of added time.
I don't think it had the full support of all nations. And the nations wanting to play couldn't decide on a date to play it. Pity really. I'm sure at the next set of Elections it will be mooted again. SAFF dodn't do anything for club football? Why? They can do SAFF Championship, start youth events, but why so scared of crowning a regional club champion?
Because we already have Asian club championships. Most of the nations play in the Presidents were they do alright for themselves. You also got non-football problems (Bangladesh's club withdrew from the Presidents Cup citing concerns with going to Pakistan). And you have travel costs. Also, for India, it would be nothing, not in terms of on the field, but that we already have a set schedule of Fed Cup, I-League along with the IFA Shield and Durand Cup which for them would provide more competition than a SAFF Club Champs would do. Not to mention the clubs play in the AFC Cup as well.
As soon as I saw the notification telling me that you reped my post I just 100% knew that it was because of that point.
I agree- it is a bit of a waste of time as most of the SAFF nations play in the Presidents Cup. I would rather SAFF focus more in international football from youth to national team in order to strengthen the region to compete the other Asian nations.