Pakistan Premier League 2004

The 2004 season was the 50th season of Pakistan domestic football.

It was the inaugural season of the Pakistan Premier League, which was created as the National League and was a 16 team event. The bottom two teams were to be relegated, and to be replaced by two teams from the lower division.

Reformation

The new PFF President, Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat, decided that it was time for Pakistan to have a football league. He felt that past Presidents had neglected domestic football, and as a result, the national team suffered. A good example of this was the fact that national champions rarely played in AFC club competitions, and the Pakistan national team was one of the worst in the world.

This would have been the first time since 1948, when the first domestic football tournament was played, that a league system would be used to find a national champion.

A new start

8 teams had automatically qualified from the previous seasons PFF Cup, they were: ABL, Pakistan Army, HBL, KPT, KRL, Pakistan Navy, PTCL and WAPDA. The other 8 teams had to qualify thorough regional tournaments. The qualifiers were: Mauripur Baloch, Naka Muhammadan, Afghan Club, Baloch FC, Wohaib Club, Panthers Club, Mardan FC and Young XI Dera Ismail Khan.

The 2004 season

On the 28th May 2004, the first matches took place, Muhammad Ayub, for HBL, scored the first goal of the new league against HBL.

This season had a number of one sided high scoring matches, as some teams lacked the quality that other teams had. On the 28th June, HBL beat Naka Muhammadan 15-0, which is to date a record for the number of goals scored in a match, the biggest victory, and the most number of players that scored in one match for one side (7). During June, ABL 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 July 14 match, they did however returned to complete the season.

The season was dominated by KRL, Pakistan Army and WAPDA, who had in the previous seasons become the dominate forces in domestic football. It came to the final day of the season, and all three teams could win the league.

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 KRL. 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 leagues top scorer, with over 20 goals.

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 ABL from the 2005 season. NBP and PWD were promoted to the PPL.

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.

PPL 2004 final standings

Champions