Daily Times

Pakistan’s top female footballers will gather in various venues across the country next week for the 12th edition of National Women Football Championship. According to an official of Pakistan Football Federation’s (PFF) normalization committee, the qualifying round for the championship will be played simultaneously in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad between November 25 and December 5. “We will see 24 teams in action. The teams have been divided into 7 groups with one group having 5 teams, one with four, while the other five groups have three teams each,” said an official of PFF. Group 3 consists of the most competitive teams of the qualifying round namely Karachi United WFC, Mohsin Gillani WFC, Karachi Kickers WFC, CD-SS Women FC and Sindh’s teams. Two teams will qualify for next month’s main round.

The rest of the six groups will see one team sail to the 8-teams’ main round after the qualifiers. Group 1 includes teams from Jafa WFC, Karachi WFC and Naseem Hameed WFC. Group 2 has teams from Balochistan, Diya WFC and Football School of Excellence. The Group 4 comprises of WAPDA, CJM WFC of Sialkot and Young Rising WFC Layyah. Group 5 will see Punjab, Model Town WFC and HEC competing against each other. Group 6 will have Young Rising Stars Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Gilgit Baltistan while group 7 will see Army, Frontier WFC, KPT and Hawks WFC competing for the place in final round. Karachi will host group 1, 2 and 3 matches while group 4 and 5 will be played in Lahore whereas teams from group 6 and 7 will compete in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. The draws for the final round will be announced at the conclusion of qualifying round.