2004 National A Division Football League

Pakistan Premier League
Season2004
Dates28 May 2004 – 13 October 2004
ChampionsWAPDA
1st Premier League title
5th Pakistani title
RelegatedAllied Bank
Young Eleven
Mauripur Baloch
Baloch Quetta
Naka Muhammadan
Mardan
AFC President's CupWAPDA
Matches240
Goals870 (3.63 per match)
Top goalscorerArif Mehmood (20 goals)
Biggest home winHabib Bank 15–0 Naka Muhammadan
(28 June 2004)
Biggest away winMardan 0–9 Pakistan Army
(5 June 2004)
Highest scoringHabib Bank 15–0 Naka Muhammadan
(28 June 2004)
Longest winning run7 games
WAPDA
Longest unbeaten run16 games
Pakistan Army
Longest winless run13 games
Mardan
Longest losing run13 games
Mardan
2005 →

The 2004 National A Division Football League season was the inaugural season of the newly formed National Football League of Pakistan, the top tier of Pakistani football. The season started on 28 May 2004 and concluded on 13 October 2004.[1]

Formation

In August 2003, the PFF came under new management, as the politician Faisal Saleh Hayat took over. Under the new management, the Pakistan Football Federation phased out the group stage based National Football Championship,[2] and in 2004 introduced the National A Division Football League,[3][4][5][6][7][8][9] With the inception of the newly formed league, provincial and divisional teams were phased out from the top tier and continued their participation in the National Games of Pakistan. In contrast, departmental and armed forces teams remained active in the new league format.[10][11][12]

After completion of the season in October 2004, PFF launched the second tier PFF League. In the next 2005 season of the top tier, the National A Division Football League was renamed to the Pakistan Premier League.[13]

Venues

The inaugural 2004 National A Division League was staged in hub rounds rather than strict club-specific home stadiums; Rawalpindi used Army Stadium and KRL Stadium, Islamabad round used Naval Sports Complex, with PTCL hosting in the twin cities. The Lahore round used Punjab Stadium, the Karachi round used KMC Stadium and Aga Khan Gymkhana Ground, a Quetta round followed later.[14][15]

Teams

Eight departmental teams automatically qualified for the league from the 2003 President PFF Cup. They were:

Team Location
Allied Bank Lahore
Habib Bank Karachi
Karachi Port Trust Karachi
Khan Research Laboratories Rawalpindi
Pakistan Army Rawalpindi
Pakistan Navy Islamabad
PTCL Islamabad
WAPDA Lahore

Other eight club teams qualified via regional tournament. Following are the teams qualified from regional tournament:

Team Location
Afghan Chaman Chaman
Baloch Quetta Quetta
Mardan FC Mardan
Mauripur Baloch Karachi
Naka Muhammadan Karachi
Panther Club Faisalabad
Wohaib Lahore
Young Eleven Dera Ismail Khan

Season summary

Season started on 28 May 2004, Khuda Bakhsh of WAPDA was the first player to score a goal in new Pakistan Premier League when he scored a brace against Allied Bank.[1]

The season saw many one-sided high-scoring matches, as some of the teams lacked in quality and financially. On 28 June, Habib Bank defeated Naka Muhammden 15–0, the highest scoring match and the biggest victory and loss and most numbers of player (7) scoring in a single match in the history of Pakistan Premier League.[1]

During June, Allied Bank disbanded their team, after refusing to renew the contracts of seven players; but they were able restored their team and returned playing. Bankruptcy hit Naka Muhammadan who withdrew before their 14 July match, they did however returned to complete the season.

The season was dominated by Khan Research Laboratories, Pakistan Army and WAPDA, as they scored a combined goals of 294, each scoring 98 goals, highest ever in Pakistan Premier League.[1]

Due to fixture congestion, WAPDA had to play both their final two matches on the same day, which just happened to be against title rivals Pakistan Army and Khan Research Laboratories.[1] WAPDA and Army drew 2-2, meaning Army were three points ahead at the top of the table, but both shared the same goal difference, and WAPDA still had one match to play.

It meant WAPDA needed to win to finish first, and their opponents, KRL, also needed to win to finish first. In this top of the table clash, it was WAPDA who were victorious, thrashing KRL 4–0 to win the title by a superior goal difference, and be crowned as the first winners of the Pakistan Football League.

Arif Mehmood of WAPDA took the honours as the league's top scorer, with over 20 goals.[9]

At the end of the season, 6 teams were relegated and 2 promoted as league reduced to 12 teams for 2005 after the number of one sided matches. Panther Club escaped relegation thanks to the withdrawal of Allied Bank from the 2005–06 season. National Bank and Pakistan Public Work Department were promoted to the 2005–06 season.

WAPDA represented Pakistan at the 2005 AFC President's Cup by virtue of being the national champions.

WAPDA, Pakistan Army and KRL set a new national record of 98 goals in a season. WAPDA only conceding 12 goals is also a new record.

League table

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification or relegation
1 WAPDA 30 23 5 2 98 12 +86 74 Qualification to 2005 AFC President's Cup
2 Pakistan Army 30 23 5 2 98 16 +82 74
3 Khan Research Laboratories 30 23 4 3 98 24 +74 73
4 Karachi Port Trust 30 18 7 5 68 34 +34 61
5 PTCL 30 18 6 6 63 29 +34 60
6 Pakistan Navy 30 14 11 5 62 28 +34 53
7 Habib Bank 30 14 7 9 67 35 +32 49
8 Allied Bank 30 15 3 12 52 40 +12 48 Relegation to 2005–06 PFF National League
9 Afghan Chaman 30 10 7 13 43 46 −3 37
10 Wohaib 30 9 3 18 37 53 −16 30
11 Panther Club[a] 30 8 6 16 43 67 −24 30
12 Young Eleven 30 7 4 19 38 90 −52 25 Relegation to 2005–06 PFF National League
13 Mauripur Baloch 30 6 4 20 25 64 −39 22
14 Baloch Quetta 30 5 5 20 26 62 −36 20
15 Naka Muhammadan 30 5 0 25 32 154 −122 15
16 Mardan 30 3 1 26 20 116 −96 10
Updated to match(es) played on 13 October 2004. Source: rsssf
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) goal difference; 5) number of goals scored; 6) drawing of lots
Notes:
  1. ^ Panther were saved from relegation as Allied Bank dissolved their team at the end of the season, saving Panther from relegation due to them being the best placed team in relegation zone.

Results

Home \ Away AFG ABL BAL HBL KPT KRL MAR MAU NAK ARMY NAVY PTCL PAN WAP WOH YOU
Afghan Chaman — 1–2 2–0 1–1 0–1 1–2 4–0 0–0 5–0 0–2 3–4 0–0 3–1 1–0 1–0 1–1
Allied Bank 0–1 — 5–1 3–1 0–1 1–5 5–0 2–0 5–1 0–3 0–0 0–5 4–0 1–3 4–1 2–0
Baloch Quetta 2–2 0–1 — 0–1 1–2 0–2 2–0 2–1 2–0 0–2 0–1 0–4 1–2 0–3 0–0 1–1
Habib Bank 0–0 5–1 2–0 — 2–0 1–2 3–1 2–0 6–2 0–2 3–1 2–2 1–1 0–1 2–0 5–0
Karachi Port Trust 4–1 4–0 1–3 2–2 — 1–0 4–1 3–0 7–3 2–1 1–1 3–2 6–0 1–3 4–0 3–0
Khan Research Laboratories 1–0 1–1 4–0 1–0 3–1 — 7–1 7–1 10–0 1–0 1–0 2–2 4–1 0–1 3–1 10–0
Mardan 2–4 0–1 1–1 1–4 0–3 0–6 — 0–3 2–5 0–9 0–2 0–3 1–2 0–7 3–0 2–0
Mauripur Baloch 2–3 0–0 2–1 1–1 0–2 1–2 1–2 — 4–0 1–5 1–1 0–2 0–1 0–4 1–0 0–4
Naka Muhammadan 1–8 1–5 3–1 0–15 1–3 1–8 3–1 1–0 — 0–5 2–1 1–3 2–3 0–5 1–6 1–3
Pakistan Army 6–0 1–0 5–0 2–0 1–1 0–0 8–0 4–1 12–0 — 3–1 2–1 2–0 0–0 2–0 4–2
Pakistan Navy 1–0 0–1 2–1 1–1 1–1 0–0 4–0 4–0 10–0 2–2 — 2–1 1–1 0–0 2–1 8–1
PTCL 2–0 1–0 3–0 2–0 0–0 1–4 4–1 2–1 2–0 2–3 1–1 — 1–1 2–1 1–0 4–2
Panther Club 2–0 1–4 1–1 1–3 2–3 2–7 3–0 1–2 8–2 0–2 1–4 0–2 — 0–4 1–2 4–1
WAPDA 6–0 2–0 3–1 5–1 2–0 4–0 10–0 6–0 8–0 2–2 1–1 1–0 1–1 — 3–0 4–1
Wohaib 1–1 1–0 4–2 2–1 2–2 0–1 5–0 0–1 4–1 0–3 0–2 1–4 5–0 0–4 — 2–3
Young Eleven 2–0 0–4 2–3 0–2 2–2 2–4 3–1 2–1 2–0 0–5 1–4 1–4 2–2 0–4 0–3 —
Updated to match(es) played on 13 October 2004. Source: RSSSF
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Statistics

Top scorers

As of 13 October 2004[16]
Rank Scorer Club Goals
1 Arif Mehmood WAPDA 20
2 Imran Hussain Pakistan Army 19
3 Qadeer Ahmed Khan Research Laboratories 17
Khuda Bakhsh WAPDA

Hat-tricks

As of 13 October 2004
Player Nationality For Against Result Date Ref
Asim Faiz  Pakistan Karachi Port Trust Naka Muhammadan 7–3 22 June 2004 [1]
Pervez Ahmed  Pakistan Habib Bank Naka Muhammadan 15–0 28 June 2004 [1]
Abdul Samad4  Pakistan Habib Bank Naka Muhammadan 15–0 28 June 2004 [1]
Abdul Qadeer5  Pakistan Khan Research Laboratories Young Eleven 10–0 3 July 2004 [1]
Atiq  Pakistan Khan Research Laboratories Young Eleven 10–0 3 July 2004 [1]
Mohammad Sadiq  Pakistan Afghan Chaman Naka Muhammadan 5–0 12 July 2004 [1]
Fareed Khan5  Pakistan Karachi Port Trust Panther Club 6–0 28 July 2004 [1]
Muhammad Arshad  Pakistan Wohaib Naka Muhammadan 6–1 29 July 2004 [1]
Imran Hussain  Pakistan Pakistan Army Naka Muhammadan 5–0 8 August 2004 [1]
Imran Hussain  Pakistan Pakistan Army Mauripur Baloch 5–1 13 August 2004 [1]
Inayatullah4  Pakistan Afghan Chaman Naka Muhammadan 8–1 17 August 2004 [1]
Ahmed Shah  Pakistan Afghan Chaman Naka Muhammadan 8–1 17 August 2004 [1]
Arif Mehmood  Pakistan WAPDA Naka Muhammadan 5–0 22 August 2004 [1]
Jaffar Hussain  Pakistan Pakistan Army Baloch Nushki 5–0 9 September 2004 [1]
Zulfiqar Ali Shah  Pakistan WAPDA Mauripur Baloch 6–0 12 September 2004 [1]
Khuda Bakhsh  Pakistan WAPDA Afghan Chaman 6–0 15 September 2004 [1]
Arif Mehmood  Pakistan WAPDA Afghan Chaman 6–0 15 September 2004 [1]

4 Player scored 4 goals
5 Player scored 5 goals.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v "Pakistan 2004 (National League and Regional Championships)". rsssf. Retrieved 15 December 2018.
  2. ^ "PFF abolishes national championship". Dawn. 10 January 2004. Retrieved 18 September 2025.
  3. ^ "National soccer league kicks off from May 28". Dawn. 14 May 2004. Retrieved 18 September 2025.
  4. ^ "Revised League schedule announced". Dawn. 20 May 2004. Retrieved 20 September 2025.
  5. ^ "PFF announces 1st round schedule of National League". Dawn. 16 May 2004. Retrieved 20 September 2025.
  6. ^ "Asad stars in ABL's victory: National League". Dawn. 2 June 2004. Retrieved 20 September 2025.
  7. ^ "PFF threatens disciplinary action against its official". Dawn. 17 June 2004. Retrieved 20 September 2025.
  8. ^ "Pakistan 2004". www.rsssf.org. Archived from the original on 3 December 2022. Retrieved 28 June 2023.
  9. ^ a b Ahsan, Ali (2 February 2011). "A history of football in Pakistan — Final part". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 2 July 2024.
  10. ^ Sohail, Shahrukh (9 August 2020). "FOOTBALL: A LEAGUE FOR PAKISTAN FOOTBALL". DAWN.COM. Archived from the original on 28 June 2023. Retrieved 28 June 2023.
  11. ^ "Rising Popularity of Football in Pakistan Reflects Growing Interest in the Sport". Daily Times. 26 June 2024. Retrieved 11 August 2024.
  12. ^ "Pakistan - List of Champions". www.rsssf.org. Archived from the original on 12 April 2023. Retrieved 5 August 2023.
  13. ^ "Pakistan 2005 (National Tournaments)". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 29 May 2023. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
  14. ^ "PFF announces 1st round schedule of National League". Dawn. 16 May 2004. Retrieved 21 September 2025.
  15. ^ "Revised League schedule announced". Dawn. 20 May 2004. Retrieved 21 September 2025.
  16. ^ "Pakistan 2004 (National League and Regional Championships)". rsssf. RSSSF. 23 July 2005. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
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