Iqbal Sports gets sponsor

Abid Khan

Srinagar, Apr 5: To encourage the local footballers of the Valley, New JK Roadways has decided to sponsor Iqbal Sports Club from 2009 session onwards.
“I’m not a footballer, but I love the game so much that I want to keep myself involved with it someway. My company will bear all the expenses of players of Iqbal Sports and Young Iqbal. We will provide them uniforms, refreshment and traveling expenses,” New JK Roadways owner, Muhammad Maqbool Lone, said in press conference, here.
He said that he has other plans also for the upliftment of the game, ‘but the formal announcement would be made later.’
“I’ve plans to introduce of academies at larger scale but for that I need to make proper planning. I’m already sponsoring one football academy at Eidgah, but that is on smaller scale” Lone said.
He regretted that no office bearer of J&K Football Association was present at the function, despite being invited.
“If we have to improve standard of football, politics and sports have to be separated. We should avoid politics and try to give our best to uplift the standard of the game,” he suggested.
Earlier, patron Iqbal Sports, Bashir Malik said, “Iqbal Sports was formed in 1980 and players of various departmental teams are products of our club. All these years, the club didn’t receive any assistance from the government. We run it on individual contributions. But now as the New JK Roadways is going to sponsor club activities, I think players will get better facilities and performance will improve.”

published in greater kashmir on April 5 -2009 link http://www.greaterkashmir.com/full_story.asp?Date=6_4_2009&ItemID=3&cat=4