Sports Board Punjab (SBP) has refused to provide their venue for the National Challenge Cup known as Pakistan’s biggest football cup competition organized by the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) yearly.
PFF announced earlier that the competition would be held from May 1 to May 12 while all the 16 departmental and club teams had been sent invitations to participate in the knockout round of the tournament.
However, according to sources, the SBP has refused to provide the Punjab Athletic Stadium in Lahore to conduct the National Challenge Cup matches in early May considering the CM Punjab Pink Games 2024 are scheduled from May 2 to May 6 at the same venue.
Issues regarding the venue for the National Challenge Cup will be resolved in the upcoming days as the PFF has already started working on other football venues in Pakistan where the competition can be conducted successfully.
The Group stages of the National Challenge Cup were completed in January 2023 following the delays that lasted for 15 months the competition will finally start from the Round of 16 this time around.
Earlier, the PFF also announced that the National Women’s Football Championship will commence from May 5 and its final will be held on May 21.
A total of 16 teams will participate in the women’s football league while all the teams will be divided into 4 groups with the top two teams from each group advancing into the quarterfinals.
It is pertinent to mention that both competitions are an integral part of Pakistan’s domestic football structure and the winner of the women’s football league will have a voting right in the PFF elections to elect the next PFF President.
