The 2007 Super Football League was the first season of the country's franchise-based football league in collaboration between the Pakistan Football Federation and GEO Super. The 2007 season spanned from July 20 to September 9.
Overview Geo TV Network and the Pakistan Football Federation came together in 2006 and began work on establishing Pakistan's first national inter-city football league to be televised on GEO Super. Geo Super reportedly signed a contract with the PFF for a period of seven years. It ran based on franchise model over a span of two months, and was one of the few televised domestic championship held in the country since its inception.
It was regarded as a parallel new professional top flight league, and for the first time the teams would be city-based and non departmental, in contrast to the Pakistan Premier League, representing Pakistan's five major cities. Players were selected after trials, which took place between June 17–25. The league attracted record crowds at the Peoples Football Stadium in Karachi.
Given the level of interest and big turnout of players for trials, the selection committee, consisting of members of the PFF and Geo TV Network, had their work cut out for them. Over 100 matches were held in different locations. Around 3000 players participated in the trias. In the league, foreign players also participated such as Nigerian Emeka Eliewa.
Islamabad United won by 4–3 on penalties in the final against Karachi Bazigar after a goalless draw. The league attracted record crowds at the Peoples Football Stadium in Karachi.
Format All matches were played in the Peoples Football Stadium in Karachi. The SFL is divided into two rounds. The first round was a round-robin league format in which the 5 teams would play a total of 8 league matches each, twice against their opponents. After the commencement of the league round, the top 4 teams out of 5 were drawn for a knock-out stage round involving single-legged semi finals with the winners meeting in a final to determine the inaugural Super Football League champion of Pakistan. Three matches, Peshawar vs Karachi (10 August 2007), and Islamabad vs Lahore (11 and 22 August 2007), were postponed due to heavy rain and waterlogged conditions, and later played on rearranged dates.
Squads Karachi BazigarIslamabad UnitedQuetta Zorawar1. Sajid Hussain 2. Akhter Mamol
3. Misbah ul Hassan
4. Akbar Ali
5. Aurangzeb Jr.
6. Adil Sakhi
7. Majid Ali
8. Javed Hamza
9. Abdul Aziz
10. Farooq Shah
11. Naseer Ahmed
12. Shahzad Hashmi
13. Shakir Lashari
14. Muhammad Moosa
15. Aurangzed Sr.
16. Ishtiaq Ahmed
17. Zeeshan Ali
18. Syed Sultan Ali
19. Fareed Sadiq
20. Amir Gul
Head Coach: Siddiq Shaikh1. Asim Khurshid 2. Akhter Mamol
3. Saeed
4. Kamran Khan
5. Yasir Sabir
6. Atiquallah
7. Sajjad Hussain
8. Muhammad Qasim
9. Emeka Aliewa
10. Mubashir Sanjrani
11. Muhammad Noor
12. Raheel Rehman
13. Ameer Khan
14. Ghulam Moh-ud-Din
15. Asim Shahzad
16. Yasir Afridi
17. Nasir Shoaib
18. Hassan Taimur Khan
19. Fahad Ullah Khan
20. Tajuddeen
Head Coach: Sajjad Mehmood1. Ghulam Nabi 2. Mehmood Khan
3. Dil Shahid Ali
4. Noor Mohammad
5. Aman Ullah
6. Shahid Ahmed
7. Zahid Hamid
8. Agha Raza
9. Muhammad Essa
10. Nasrullah
11. Jahangir Shah
12. Mohammad Asgher
13. Masood Ahmed
14. Jahangir
15. Waqas Ahmed
16. Noman Ejaz
17. Mehdi
18. Jadid Khan Pathan
19. Imran Hashmi
20. Abbas Ali
Head Coach: Lahore LajpaalsTribe FC Peshawar1. Muhammad Tariq 2. Tanveer Ahmed
3. Muhammad Shahid
4. Amir Khan
5. Naveed Akram
6. Burhan Ali
7. Mehmood Ahmed
8. Arif Mehmood
9. Bashir Ahmed
10. Zaheer Abbas
11. Bilal Rafique
12. Haji Muhammad
13. Muhammad Luqman
14. Atif Hussain
15. Rashid Ali
16. Abdul Waqas
17. Ali Ahsan
18. Abdul Basit
19. Muhammad Asif
20. Qamar Ali Chand
Head Coach: Bashir Ahmed1. Abdul Shakoor 2. Ataullah
3. Inam
4. Banaras
5. Irfan
6. Akhtar Munir
7. Sajjad
8. Liaqat Ali
9. Adeel
10. Attique
11. Khalid Zaman
12. Noor ul Haq
13. Imran Niazi
14. Aamir
15. Abid
16. Siraj Hussain
17. Arsalan Azam
18. Fazal Zeeshan
19. Nadeem Jabran
20. Wajeh
Head Coach: Qazi Muhammad Asif
League round
Fixtures and results
Semi-finals
Final
Awards AwardRecipientClubTop ScorerArif Mehmood (8 goals)Lahore LajpaalsPlayer of the TournamentMuhammad EssaQuetta ZorawarFair Play AwardLahore Lajpaals
References
External links
Super Football League 2007 official site