Pakistan, India to resume their soccer rivalry in England

NEW DELHI: Cricket ties remain on hold but bitter neighbours India and Pakistan will resume their soccer rivalry next month with a series of three international friendlies in England, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) said on Monday.

"Playing Pakistan is always special," AIFF president Praful Patel said in a statement.

"It's a positive sign that we will play a bilateral football series against Pakistan. I'm sure all sporting fans are eagerly looking forward to it."

Manchester, Coventry and London will host the matches between Aug. 25-Sept. 11, the statement said, but the UK-based organisers told Reuters that neither the dates nor the stadiums had been finalised.

The last time India visited Pakistan for a soccer match was in 2005, although the sides last met in an AFC Challenge Cup qualifier in Malaysia this March. India won that contest 3-1.

India snapped bilateral cricket ties with Pakistan after the 2008 Mumbai attack in which Pakistani gunmen killed 166 people in a three-day shooting spree in India's financial capital.

Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani travelled to India in March this year to watch a World Cup semi-final featuring the neighbours and the 'cricket diplomacy' has rekindled hopes of a resumption of tests and one-dayers between the sides.