ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan national football team has not been able to depart for Dushanbe to play their final round two away fixture of the FIFA World Cup 2026 qualifiers against Tajikistan on June 11, the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) said on Monday, citing technical flight issues.
The South Asian team lost to the Saudi football team 4-0 in the first leg of the qualifying matches when they faced off in Al Ahsa. Last week on June 6, Saudi Arabia beat Pakistan 3-0 at the Jinnah Football Stadium in Islamabad with Firas Tariq Nasser Al-Buraikan dealing Pakistan an early blow in the 26th minute followed by another one 15 minutes later, giving the visitors a 2-0 edge over the hosts.
Later, Pakistan suffered another setback in round one of the qualifiers when they lost 6-1 to Tajikistan in Islamabad days after losing to Saudi Arabia.
“The Pakistani football team couldn’t depart for Tajikistan,” the PFF said in a statement on Monday. “The Pakistani team was supposed to depart via a chartered flight on Wednesday, but the flight was halted due to technical issues.”
The national football squad had already arrived at the airport lounge but the flight was not able to depart, the statement said.
Pakistan are bottom-placed in Group G of the FIFA World Cup qualifiers and are already out of the race to qualify for the third round of the FIFA World Cup qualifying matches after losing four matches on the trot.
Apart from Saudi Arabia, the other two teams with Pakistan in Group G are Jordan and Tajikistan. In the second round of the qualifiers, a total of 36 football squads have been split into nine groups with four teams each. The winners and runners-up from each group would go through to the third round.
Pakistan squad:
Goalkeepers: Yousuf Butt (D), Saqib Hanif and Hassan Ali
Defenders: Abdullah Iqbal (D), Mohammad Fazal (D), Haseeb Khan, Rao Omer Hayat, Mamoon Moosa, Mohammad Saddam,
Waqar Ihtisham, Moin Ahmed and Abdul Rehman
Midfielders: Rahis Nabi (D), Otis Khan (D), Ali Uzair, Umair Ali, Toqeer ul Hassan, Alamgir Ghazi and Ali Zafar
Forwards: Imran Kayani (D), McKeal Abdulah, Fareedulah, Adeel Younas and Shayak Dost
