Coca Cola and Karachi United have joined hands to organize the Coca Cola Karachi United Ramadan Football Tournament, which will bring together youth and club teams from across Karachi. During the Ramadan Tournament, there will be two tournaments running in parallel for community based club teams and youth teams.
Earlier, the qualifying rounds for the club tournament were kicked off across Karachi with Al Shabaz Korangi, Usmanabad Union and Young Azizabad gaining victories. In addition to community based club teams, the tournament will also bring youth talent from across Karachi to compete. Teams from Karachi United Centers of Excellence from Malir, Korangi, Lyari, Old Golimar, Nazimabad, Mangophir will be joined by three select academies.
In the qualifiers six teams were vying for berths in the main round and in the first of these games, featuring teams from District East, after both teams were unable to break the deadlock in regulation time, Al Shabaz Korangi edged out Nasir Sports 3-0 after a dramatic penalty shoot-out with M. Hussain, M. Yousuf and Mohammad Ullah scoring for Al Shabaz.
In the District South qualifying fixture, Usmanabad Union demolished Karachi City 5-0 with M. Tariq scoring an excellent hat-trick and a goal apiece by Sajid and M. Imran. The last qualifying match in District Central saw Young Azizabad edging out Khaleeq Memorial by a 2-1 scoreline. Samiullah and Abdul Salam scored for the winners with the consolation for the losers scored by Sher Mohammed.
The Youth tournament will kick off after the first weekend of Ramadan.
The main round of the club tournament will feature Karachi’s 10 top club teams divided into two groups of 5 with qualifiers, Usmanabad Union and Young Azizabad joining hosts Karachi United FC (District South), Keamari Union (District West) and FC Rovers (District Malir) in Group A. Group B comprises one of the venue hosts, Korangi Baloch (District Malir), Hazara M’Dan (District East) and Burma M’Dan (District East) who are joined by Al Shabaz Korangi and Jalal Murad.
The first stage of the club tournament will be played from 12thJuly till around 25th July with the semis and final for both the club and youth tournaments scheduled for 26th and 28th July respectively.
Matches will be played at different venues across Karachi including Korangi Baloch Stadium (Sharafi), KMC Stadium and Baloch Mujahid Stadium (Ibrahim Hydri) as well as at Karachi United Centers of Excellence.
Coca Cola and Karachi United are working together to promote football in Karachi and Pakistan. Coca Cola is well known in the football world for its support of grassroots and professional football. Karachi United has been active in playing and promoting football since 1996.
Riaz Ahmed – 0300-3926092
