Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) announced on Monday that the FIFA World Cup Qualifier Round 2 match will be played in a neutral venue instead of Islamabad.
Pakistan Football Federation needed adequate lights to host the match during Ramadan under the lights, reportedly the lights should have an out of 1800 lumens to meet the standard requirements of FIFA.
The PFF posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, “Dear Football Community of Pakistan, We would like to provide an important update regarding our upcoming FIFA World Cup Qualifiers Round 2 match against Jordan.”
Pakistan Football Federation further said in an official statement, “Since our last home game against Tajikistan in November, the Pakistan Football Federation, in collaboration with the Pakistan Sports Board, has been diligently working on preparing the Jinnah Stadium for the upcoming match against Jordan scheduled for March.”
“However, we regret to inform you that, despite our best efforts, the current standard of the Jinnah Stadium does not meet FIFA standards.” the PFF added further.
“The deadline for venue submission was January 21 and as we are committed to upholding the integrity of the game, we’ve decided to explore alternative options. We will be in contact with the Jordan Football Association to discuss the arrangement of a neutral venue for the home leg.
The PFF emphasized the challenges they are facing in terms of adequate lighting, “One significant challenge we are facing is related to the lighting conditions. As the March game is scheduled to be held under lights, and considering it falls during Ramazan, we have encountered difficulties in meeting FIFA’s lighting standards with the current setup.”
Earlier it was reported that the lights would be installed by the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) by the end of February and 4,000 seats would be installed before the game against Jordan on 21st March.
This would have been Pakistan’s third game in the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers Round 2 Group stage and also the third match in Islamabad since October when they defeated Cambodia to get past World Cup Qualifiers Round 1 for the first time in their history.