2007–08 Pakistan Premier League

The 2007–08 season was the 53rd season of Pakistan domestic football and the 4th season of the Pakistan Premier League. It was held from November 1, 2007 to February 6, 2008, under the auspices of Pakistan Football Federation.

Pakistan Premier League

Season	2007–08
Champions	WAPDA F.C. 2nd Premier League title 6th Pakistani title
Relegated	Pakistan Railways F.C. Wohaib F.C.
AFC President's Cup	WAPDA F.C.
Matches played	180
Goals scored	448 (2.49 per match)
Best Player	Muhammad Imran
Top goalscorer	Arif Mehmood (21 goals)
Best goalkeeper	Amir Qureshi
Biggest home win	WAPDA 7–1 Wohaib (5 January 2008)
Biggest away win	Habib Bank 0–5 Pakistan Navy (10 December 2007)
Highest scoring	Pakistan Army 5–3 Pakistan Television (24 November 2007) WAPDA 7–1 Wohaib (5 January 2008)
Longest winning run	14 games Pakistan Army WAPDA
Longest unbeaten run	26 games WAPDA
Longest winless run	22 games Wohaib
Longest losing run	19 games Wohaib
← 2006–07 2008–09 →

Changes

The Pakistan Football Federation had recently made changes to the league. It was announced that the league strength had been increased to a total of 14 teams with Habib Bank Limited, which was relegated after winning 2 and drawing 6 out of their 20 games the previous season, had been granted permission to field its team. Similarly, Pakistan Airlines, which had withdrawn its entry from the last year's edition at the eleventh hour, were also to feature in the coming event.

Format

A total of 182 matches will be played at different venues in Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi, Chaman, and Faisalabad. Peshawar, which was also under consideration to host few matches, has been left out of the venues’ list due to financial constraints. In Karachi, 65 matches would be held, Lahore and Islamabad have got 39 matches each, while Rawalpindi, Chaman and Faisalabad will host 13 matches each.

The winners will represent Pakistan at the 2008 AFC President's Cup. The bottom two teams will be relegated to the Pakistan Football Federation League and two teams (winners and runners-up) from Pakistan Football Federation League will be promoted for the 2008-09 edition..

The matches will be held at 13:00 PST and 15:00 PST respectively on home and away basis.

This season the winning prize will be Rs. 500,000, the runners-up team will receive Rs 300,000 while the third position holder will receive Rs 100,000. All matches are likely to be supervised by neutral referees.

Teams

Stadia and locations

Afghan Chaman

Habib Bank
KESC

KPT
NBP
PIA

KRL

Army

Navy

PTV

Railways

PMC

WAPDA
Wohaib

Location of teams in Pakistan Premier League 2007–08

Club	City/State	Stadium	Capacity
Afghan Chaman	Chaman	Jamal Nasir Stadium	12,000
Habib Bank	Karachi	Peoples’ Football Stadium	40,000
Karachi Electric Supply Corporation	Karachi	Peoples’ Football Stadium	40,000
Karachi Port Trust	Karachi	KPT Sports Complex	6,000
Khan Research Laboratories	Rawalpindi	Khan Research Laboratories Ground	8,000
Pakistan Airlines	Karachi	KPT Sports Complex	6,000
National Bank	Karachi	KPT Sports Complex	6,000
Pakistan Army	Rawalpindi	Army Stadium	7,000
Pakistan Navy	Islamabad	Naval Sports Complex	1,000
Pakistan Television	Islamabad	Jinnah Sports Stadium	48,200
Pakistan Railways	Lahore	Railway Stadium	3,000
PMC Club Athletico Faisalabad	Faisalabad	Railways Ground	10,000
WAPDA	Lahore	Punjab Stadium	10,000
Wohaib	Lahore	Punjab University Old Campus Ground	1,000

Season summary

The league title went to the final day of the season, with a match between Pakistan Army and WAPDA, with Army only needing a draw to retain their title, however WAPDA went on to win the match 2-1 after two goals from Arif Mehmood completing the comeback after being 0-1 down by a goal from Imran Hussain.

WAPDA won their second Premier League title and sixth top division title and became the first team to end a season undefeated.

Wohaib and Pakistan Railways were relegated to the PFF League and will be replaced next season by PFF League winners Pak Elektron and runner-ups Pakistan Steel.

Final standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	WAPDA	26	16	10	0	64	23	+41	58	Qualification to 2008 AFC President's Cup
2	Pakistan Army	26	17	6	3	41	10	+31	57
3	Khan Research Laboratories	26	15	8	3	45	13	+32	53
4	Karachi Port Trust	26	12	8	6	36	24	+12	44
5	National Bank	26	11	10	5	36	31	+5	43
6	Pakistan Airlines	26	9	12	5	32	23	+9	39
7	Pakistan Navy	26	9	11	6	36	26	+10	38
8	Karachi Electric Supply Corporation	26	8	8	10	27	30	−3	32
9	Afghan Chaman	26	5	12	9	23	29	−6	27
10	Habib Bank	26	7	4	15	35	42	−7	25
11	Pakistan Television	26	6	5	15	20	45	−25	23
12	PMC Club Athletico Faisalabad	26	5	7	14	19	43	−24	22
13	Pakistan Railways (R)	26	4	7	15	22	51	−29	19	Relegation to 2008-09 PFF League
14	Wohaib (R)	26	1	5	20	11	60	−49	8

Updated to match(es) played on 1 March 2008. Source: PFF
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(R) Relegated

Pakistan Premier League 2007–08
WAPDA FC 2nd title

Season statistics

Scoring

• Fastest goal in a match: 43 seconds – Essa for Khan Research Laboratories against Habib Bank (12 December 2007)
• First hat-trick of the season: Adeel Ahmed for Khan Research Laboratories against Pakistan Television (19 November 2007)
• Widest winning margin: 6 goals – WAPDA 7–1 Wohaib (5 January 2008)
• Most hat-tricks scored by one player: 2
  • Arif Mehmood for WAPDA
    • WAPDA 7–1 Wohaib (5 January 2008)
    • WAPDA 4–0 Habib Bank (13 January 2008)
• Most hat-tricks by a team: 3
  • Khan Research Laboratories
    • Adeel Ahmed v Pakistan Television (19 November 2007)
    • Muhammad Rasool v National Bank (26 December 2007)
    • Yasir Afridi v Afghan Chaman (15 January 2008)
  • WAPDA
    • Arif Mehmood v Habib Bank (13 January 2008)
    • Zulfiqar Ali Shah v Wohaib (5 January 2008)
    • Arif Mehmood v Wohaib (5 January 2008)
      • This is the first time in the Premier League that two players has scored a hat-trick in a single match.
• Team with most goals scored: 64 goals – WAPDA
• Team with fewest goals scored: 11 goals – Wohaib
• Team with fewest goals conceded: 10 goals – Pakistan Army
• Team with most goals conceded: 57 goals – Wohaib

Top scorers

Rank	Scorer	Club	Goals
1	Arif Mehmood	WAPDA	21
2	Zulfiqar Ali Shah	WAPDA	18
3	Imran Hussain	Pakistan Army	17
4	Shakir Lashari	Pakistan Airlines	10
	Ishtiaq Ahmed	Habib Bank
	Abdul Rehman	Karachi Port Trust
7	Farooq Shah	National Bank	9
	Muhammad Essa	Khan Research Laboratories
	Muhammad Qasim	Khan Research Laboratories

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date
Adeel Ahmed	Khan Research Laboratories	Pakistan Television	4–1	19 November 2007
Abdul Rehman	Karachi Port Trust	Pakistan Railways	3–2	22 November 2007
Imran Hussain	Pakistan Army	Pakistan Television	5–3	24 November 2007
Nomi Martin Gill	Pakistan Navy	Habib Bank	5–0	10 December 2007
Muhammad Rasool	Khan Research Laboratories	National Bank	3–0	26 December 2007
Zulfiqar Ali Shah	WAPDA	Wohaib	7–1	5 January 2008
Arif Mehmood4	WAPDA	Wohaib	7–1	5 January 2008
Arif Mehmood	WAPDA	Habib Bank	4–2	13 January 2008
Yasir Afridi	Khan Research Laboratories	Afghan Chaman	5–0	15 January 2008

⁴ Player scored four goals

External links

• Pakistan Football Federation
• PFF announces changes to Premier League - The News^{[permanent dead link]}
• More changes in League - The News^{[permanent dead link]}
• WAPDA down Army 2-1 to clinch title