2007–08 Pakistan Premier League

Pakistan Premier League
Season2007–08
ChampionsWAPDA F.C.
2nd Premier League title
6th Pakistani title
RelegatedPakistan Railways F.C.
Wohaib F.C.
AFC President's CupWAPDA F.C.
Matches played180
Goals scored448 (2.49 per match)
Best PlayerMuhammad Imran
Top goalscorerArif Mehmood (21 goals)
Best goalkeeperAmir Qureshi
Biggest home winWAPDA 7–1 Wohaib
(5 January 2008)
Biggest away winHabib Bank 0–5 Pakistan Navy
(10 December 2007)
Highest scoringPakistan Army 5–3 Pakistan Television
(24 November 2007)
WAPDA 7–1 Wohaib
(5 January 2008)
Longest winning run14 games
Pakistan Army
WAPDA
Longest unbeaten run26 games
WAPDA
Longest winless run22 games
Wohaib
Longest losing run19 games
Wohaib

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

Changes

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 Similarly, Pakistan Airlines, which had withdrawn its entry from the last year edition at the eleventh hour, will also feature in the coming event.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

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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 Stadium 10,000

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
    • 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
Abdur 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