KARACHI: Football’s governing body in the country, the PFF, plans to start the Pakistan Premier Football League in the last week of this month, a top official of the federation told ‘The News’ on Friday.

“We have prepared the schedule but still we are taking some time to disclose it because we are talking with some sponsors to come in and add colour to the major domestic competition,” the Director Operations of PFF Pervez Saeed Mir said.

“Whatever the outcome of the ongoing talks with the sponsors, we will go ahead with our plan and everything including the draws will be issued in the next few days and the league will formally kick off on July 22 or 25,” Mir clarified.

He disclosed the prime event will start from Karachi and Quetta as the weather in the two cities is looking good as compared to Lahore and other areas of the Punjab including the federal capital, Islamabad.

To a question he said that the talks with GEO Television to telecast live around 26 matches of the league involving major departmental teams were in progress but he is not sure about any positive outcome yet.

It is pertinent to mention here that 14 top ranking teams including the defending champions WAPDA, Army, Khan Research Laboratories (KRL), Karachi Port Trust (KPT), National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC), Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), Pakistan Navy, Chaman’s Afghan Club, Punjab Medical College (PMC) Faisalabad, Pakistan Television (PTV), Habib Bank Limited (HBL) and the newly promoted teams from the PFF League B Division Pak Elektron Limited (PEL) Lahore and Pakistan Steel will show their worth in the contest.

Last year, as per rules Railways and Lahore’s Wohaib Club were relegated to the B Division after finishing at the lowest ebb. The 182-match event will be played on a home and away basis and is likely to be concluded in three months time.

Out of the 53 prime domestic events held so far in the history of Pakistan football PIA, the then formidable side, are leading with nine titles, followed by Punjab with eight, WAPDA and Karachi six each, Army four, Allied Bank Limited (ABL), and Balochistan three each, Dhaka (Dacca), Sindh, Pakistan Railways and Faisalabad’s Crescent Textile Mills two each while Peshawar, East Pakistan, Chittagong, HBL, Quetta and Pakistan Air Force (PAF) have a title each to their credit.