ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s football players, who said that home support means a lot to them, made passionate pleas on Tuesday to supporters to come to the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Jordan here at Jinnah Stadium on Thursday.
Despite being played in the month of Ramadan, the national team has been training at Jinnah Stadium for the past three days under the direction of English coach Stephen Constantine. The match is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m.
In order to ensure that the match was played at night, after fasting hours, floodlights were supposed to be constructed at Jinnah Stadium ahead of time. However, these plans never materialized, and players are pleading with supporters to attend the Group “G” match between Asian Cup finalists Jordan and their opponents.
defender Rao Umar Hayat posted a video message saying, “I know it is difficult for people during Ramadan, but we are expecting a large number of football fans to turn up.” “I ask the supporters to come out and help us.”
Easah Suliman, a fellow defender, expressed similar opinions.
Jordan will be trying to earn as many points as possible against Pakistan in Islamabad and then at home five days later. Pakistan is now at the bottom of Group ‘G’ after losing 4-0 to Saudi Arabia and 6-1 to Tajikistan in their opening two games.
Jordan was scheduled to arrive in Islamabad on Tuesday night after losing to Qatar in the Asian Cup final last month. A PFF representative informed Dawn, “They will arrive here approximately 10:30pm.”
For the two matches against Jordan, Pakistan was expecting the services of Adil Nabi and Etzaz Hussain, who play in Norway and Cyprus, respectively. However, the midfield duo, who recently received permission to represent their country of origin, chose not to play and issued a statement stating that they will not play under the current management.
But Constantine has added eight overseas players to his team: Mohammad Fazal, Abdul Samad, Abdullah Iqbal, Yousuf Butt, Rahis Nabi, and Easah Suliman. For the first time in their history, Pakistan advanced past the first round of World Cup qualification thanks to goals from Imran Kayani and Harun Hamid against Cambodia last year.
