A milestone on the road to the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar took place when the draw for the first phase of Asia’s qualifying round for the 2022 World Cup finals featuring the continent’s lowest-ranked nations was conducted. FIFA President, Gianni Infantino continues to promote his plan to expand the tournament from 32 to 48 teams and potentially share the hosting duties originally awarded to Qatar with other nations in the Middle East.
Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) have submitted an initial players list to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for next month’s 2022 FIFA World Cup and 2023 AFC Asian Cup first-round qualifier against Cambodia although there still remains doubts of how the team will actually be able to play the qualifiers.
Among several players in the 50-man squad have started their practice in a training camp at Jinnah Stadium in Islamabad which kick started from 6th May and is suppose to continue to run till 3rd June, which will mark the three days before Pakistan are due to play Cambodia away in the first leg.
An AFC spokesperson said,
“All squads have been received by the deadline. However final squad deadline is the day before the match but an initial squad of 50 has to be submitted one month before the games.”
Before being ousted from the office, the Hayat faction had appointed Brazilian Jose Antonio Nogueira as the national team head-coach. Some five national team players, strangely, are in Brazil for a player support programme on the recommendation of Nogueira. The programme — organised by Gold Sports Brasil and Sitrefesp (Union of Football coaches of Sao Paulo State) — has been running from April 12 and is due to end on June 12.
Where as PFF President, Ashfaq has appointed Tariq Lutfi as the National Team Head Coach, who is one of the most decorated local coaches, he has been in-charge of the team in the past and informed that so far 15 of the 32 players called up have arrived at the training camp in which practice sessions are being held at night due to the month of Ramadan.
The top players who have arrived at the camp include, Pakistan's National Football Team Captain, Saddam Hussain, Goalkeeper, Saqib Hanif and Striker, Jadeed Khan Pathan.
The June qualifiers will feature six home and away matches, with part of the overall campaign to double as 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualifying. Malaysia, Cambodia, Macau, Laos, Bhutan and Mongolia are seeded as the draw’s top six sides who have the challenging task of facing possible opponents: Bangladesh, Guam, Brunei Darussalam, Timor-Leste, Pakistan and Sri Lanka for a place in the next qualifying round.
Cambodia are coached by former Japan star Keisuke Honda and most recently lost to Pakistan’s South Asian rivals Bangladesh in a friendly last month to which former Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) official, Muslim Butt, who now resides in Cambodia, believes there is a strong chance that Pakistan can win the tie.
The winners of the two-legged ties, which will be played on 6th June with the return on 11th June, will advance to the next phase of the competition, which will be determined at the official draw for the 2022 World Cup finals in Qatar in July.
