The final round of the National Challenge Cup 2023 will start on October 21, the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) announced on Thursday.
A total of 16 formidable teams have qualified for the final round, comprising 14 victorious teams and 2 deserving runners-up. The teams include KRL, Pakistan Army, Pakistan Air Force, Pakistan Navy, WSTC, Otto Crain, SA Farms, WAPDA, SA Gardens, HEC, PACA, NIMSO, Asia Ghee Mills, Pakistan Railways, Pakistan Police, and Masha United.
The tournament will conclude on November 6.
To ensure a smooth organization of the event, the PFF has already dispatched invitations to all the participating teams. A request for confirmation of their availability by the 10th of September has been extended to each team. Subsequent to receiving the teams' confirmations, the draws will be conducted, and the schedule for the matches will be announced in due course.
FIFA, AFC backs PFF Normalisation Committee
Football’s governing body FIFA and Asian Football Federation (AFC) backed the Haroon Malik-led PFF's Normalisation Committee (NC) on Wednesday.
The development comes after the Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination had asked FIFA President Gianni Infantino, in a letter dated June 19, to consider withdrawing the nomination of chairman of the PFF Normalisation Committee (NC) and, instead, appoint a Focal Person to monitor football affairs and liaise with the Ministry and Pakistan Sports Board to conduct elections of PFF.
The IPC ministry had also accused PFF NC of wasting four years since its appointment in the year 2019.
However, FIFA, in its reply to IPC, has clarified that the “current normalisation committee was only able to properly fulfill its mandate starting from the end of June of last year”.
“We would like to point out that although the PFF Normalisation Committee was appointed by FIFA on June 27, 2019, its current four members were nominated on January 19, 2021 only, following the inability of the previous members to carry out their mandates as per the instructions of FIFA,” FIFA stated in the letter.
“Furthermore, the suspension of PFF by FIFA, which lasted from April 6, 2021 until June 29, 2022, made it impossible for the normalisation committee to carry out its mandate during that period as it had no premises nor staff at disposal,” it added.