AFC President’s Cup 2007 captains. Photo: AFC/Stanley Chou

LAHORE: Central Asian teams – Dordoi-Dynamo (Kyrgyzstan) and Regar-TadAZ (Tajikistan), who shared two titles between them, start as favourites when the third edition of the AFC President’s Cup begin at the Punjab Stadium here on Thursday.

Four-time Pakistan national champions Pakistan Army will clash against Sri Lanka’s Ratnam Sports Club in the inaugural encounter while Regar-TadAZ, who won the inaugural edition in Nepal in 2005, will take on Bhutan’s Transport United in the second Group A game on the same day.

Tajikistan player of the year in 2005 and 2006, Khurshed Makhmudov and midfielder Ibraguim Rabimov will be the players to watch for the Tajikistan League champions.

Group B teams, defending champions Dordoi-Dynamo of Kyrgyzstan , Mahendra Police Club ( Nepal ), Khemara ( Cambodia ) and Tatung (Chinese Taipei), will play their opening round games on Friday.

Ratnam coach Packeer Ali said: “We were looking forward to this event and I hope that my players can prove themselves at the international stage here.”

“We lost to the Central Asian club last year with a narrow margin but I am confident to make amends this year. My first target to take the team to the semi-final stage,” he said.

Pakistan Army manager Major Shafqat Mahmud said: “We will have advantage of home ground and the crowd will also support us. We have prepared well for this tournament and I am sure that this time we will cross the group stage.”

Dordoi-Dynamo’s Roman Kornilov, who won the Most Valuable Player award in the last edition at Kuching , Malaysia , is also all-time leading scorer of AFC President’s Cup with five goals along with Chuang Yao-Tsung ( Tatung ).

Mahendra Police Club, the Nepal League champions have solid a backline led by experienced national defender Rakesh Shrestha with young but experienced Ritesh Thapa under the bar.

Kasun Jayasuriya, who has been dubbed one of the best footballers in Sri Lanka, will hold key to Ratnam’s success in this competition while Transport United, who also appeared in the last two editions of this competition but managed to win only one match so far when they beat Pakistan Army last year 1-0, would be aiming to better their show this time.