Lahore, 25 January :
Midfielder
Ishrat Fatima of Lahore’s Sports Sciences Department (Punjab University)
will become first-ever captain of Pakistan National Women football team on
31 January when Pakistan will take on India at Dhaka’s
Bangabandhu National Stadium in five-nation League of 11th South
Asian Games 2010. The Bangladeshi capital would host the 12-day show from 29
January – 8 February 2010.
Isharat, who have the distinction of getting all three medals in National Championship, was approved by Pakistan Football Federation (PFF)’s President Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat as skipper of first-ever National Women team while PFF Chief also listed Balochistan United’s skipper Riffat Mehdi – all time leading scorer of National Women Championship with 24 goals - as Vice Captain.
According to PFF Women Wing Chairperson Robina Irfan, Kamalapur’s Birshreshtha Shaheed Sepoy Mostafa Kamal Stadium will host both the women's matches in the opening day. The remaining group matches will be held at Bangabandhu National Stadium. On January 29, hosts Bangladesh will launch their campaign against Nepal while India will face Sri Lanka. Pakistan’s four matches in League phase are against India (31 Jan), Bangladesh (2 Feb), Sri Lanka (4 Feb) and Nepal (6 Feb).
It may be recalled that Pakistan WAPDA’s Misbah Siddiqui got the honor of becoming first-ever Captain of Pakistan National Women Futsal team that appeared in third Amman Women's Football Futsal Championship at Amman’s Qasr Arriyada Hall in Hussein Sports City.
The 19-player squad is comprised of Skipper Ishrat Fatima, Shumaila Sattar, Naima Mukhtar, Shagufta Akhtar (Sports Sciences, Punjab University), Sahar Zaman, Malaika Noor, S. Mahapara (Rawalpindi’s Young Rising Star), Humera Nazir, Rafia Perveen, Saba Barkat Ullah, Nadia Bhatti (Pak WAPDA), Vice Captain Riffat Mehdi, Sohaila Zareen, Shahlyla Baloch, Shahida (Balochistan United), Asma Usman (HEC), Hajra Khan (Diya FC), Mejzgaan Orakzai and Abeeha Masood (IFA). The officials will be Farishtay Ali Sharifi, ( Manager), Muhammad Rasheed ( coach), Kirin Illyas, Shaista Laghari ( Assistant Coaches)
The 17 players deducted from 36-girls camp, called for National Camp on 20 December, were Maha Ahmed, Memona Shah, Marium Laghari, Fatima Ansari , Madiha Latif, Tehreem Iqbal, Sumaira Kausar, Lubna Shazia ,Raeema, Suraya , Rabia Zaman ,Tahira Akram, Samia Ehsan, Ayesha Haroon, Isra Batool, Sana Mehmood, Razia Perveen,
The women's soccer competition has been inducted in the 26-year history of Games for the first time. The South Asian Olympic Council’s Executive Council on 18 November 2009 at Dhaka has decided to include Women football in the Games having eleven women soccer matches.