KARACHI: The construction work on the FIFA Goal Project has finally commenced, revealed a top official of the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) at a press briefing on Saturday.
“Today work on Karachi Goal Project has started, as the contractors got 20 percent money as the first installment from the FIFA’s approved grant for the project,” PFF secretary Col Ahmad Yar Khan Lodhi said.
“This will be completed by the beginning of the next year,” he said, adding that funds have already been earmarked for similar projects in Quetta, Abbottabad and Punjab.
The project, which will have a football ground and accommodation facilities for four teams, is being built on plot 13 A-1 in Scheme 42, Hawkesbay. The site is more attractive because of the sea view.
“On the completion of the project, national teams’ camps will be held here as Karachi’s weather is much similar to that of Malaysia, Thailand and Middle East. So, it would be kind of ideal place for us to train our teams, but we need the assistance of Sindh Football Association in this regard,” Lodhi added.
SFA president Khadim Ali Shah said that construction work on Jacobabad and Sukkur projects would also start within a month, and both of them are to be completed in a year to help promote football in the country.
FIFA has approved $400,000 for the Karachi Project, and the PFF decided to spend $150,000 on the project from its own resources.