Karachi United’s under-17 team recently participated in the Islamabad Youth Premier League and the head coach of the team had some serious reservations about the age difference between his players and the opposition.
In a podcast with ProSports, Karachi United head coach Sheikh Hamdan, stated that the age difference of the opposition team players was massive and their actual biological age was much more than their ages registered according to the B-form by their clubs.
“I was shocked to see the age difference between our club and other clubs, when I talked with the people in Islamabad I understood why that was the case. Most players come from Chitral and mountain terrains such as Muree Hills and that’s why there it is much easier to attain documents where the kids’ ages are shown much lesser than their actual age.”, stated the Karachi United head coach.
The Karachi United coach also led the team in the Pakistan Premier League in 2021 and finished just above the relegation zone in 9th position. The club accumulated 13 points in 13 matches in their first-ever Premier League season.
However, the league was disrupted due to the political issues and differences among the factions of the Pakistan Football Federation.
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“In Pakistan, people are naturally egoistic. For them, winning is important and everyone wants to get praise for their achievements but sadly nobody cares about the development of youth football. People should understand in this country that youth football is about development and senior football is about results,” said Sheikh Hamdan.
“At the end of the day, the development of the kids is more important than anything else and Karachi United is trying to work on that with its academy” he added.
While talking about the playing style of football in Islamabad, Sheikh Hamdan said, “The playing style is extremely physical and the reason behind that is the players are aged around 22 to 23 years of age, the difference is glaring because of the age fraud.”
The youth team of the KU Football Club Under 17 academy played 7 matches in the Islamabad Youth Championship and was knocked out of the quarterfinals in the Youth Premier League which was organized by POPO Football Club in Islamabad.
