Gujranwala: The Federal Research Agency (FIA) arrested 22 men accused of impersonating a professional football team after the Japanese immigration authorities discovered their falsified travel documents and deported them.
The imitators, dressed in football kits, said they were registered in the Pakistan Football Federation and had scheduled matches with a Japanese club.
However, during the interrogation, Japanese immigration officials detected fraud and deported the group to Pakistan.
The FIA said that the main suspect, Malik Waqas, who had registered a false football club under the name of Golden Football Trial, was arrested in Gujranwala.
A case has been registered at the FIA Gujranwala Police Station and new consultations are ongoing. The researchers said the organizers charged each RS4 million man for the trip.
The authorities said that the 22 people were trained to act as professional players and were provided with counterfeit documents.
During the interrogation, Waqas admitted that he had previously sent 17 people to Japan in January 2024 using the same modus operandi.
