SWINDON Town say vice-chairman Zavier Austin has enjoyed a productive visit to Karachi as the club looks to establish links with football in Pakistan.

Austin has recently returned from a three-day visit to Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, where he was furthering ties established by the club’s partnership with Karachi Football Club.

The visit of Karachi as part of formally cementing the relationship established last month and he remains encouraged by the possibilities this could create for the club.

In a statement on Town's website, Austin said: “I am really pleased that Swindon Town Football Club is the first English Club to make the trip to Karachi, a city that boasts a population of over 27 million people.

“As I said in the original announcement, we are committed to finding the best young talent throughout Asia and around the globe, and I am now excited to announce the next steps in our partnership with Karachi Football Club.

“It became very obvious to me that there is a significant amount of footballing talent out in Karachi and in Pakistan, and we want to tap into that as well as help those who are unfortunately living in poverty.

“We are exceedingly keen to embark on this journey with Karachi Football Club, and we are very excited about the opportunities we’ve been given to help grow the game of football in Pakistan, hopefully make a difference and also engage with our large Pakistani community in Swindon and get them involved with their local club.

“These are exciting times for all concerned and this is just the beginning of our relationship with Karachi FC, and other clubs throughout Asia.”

Austin said that the next step in the partnership will be an exchange of coaches between Swindon and Karachi.

He said: “In the next six weeks, we will be sending a coach from our Academy out to Karachi to have a look at their set-up, assess it and change and tweak it as he sees fit.

“He will run a camp and a trial for not only players, but also coaches as we look to identify the best young talent and the most incredible football minds in Karachi.

“Then, we will be inviting two coaches from Karachi over to Swindon for a four-week period where they will study both our Academy and our first-team closely, watching how our guys work and prepare before taking those ideas back to Karachi where they can then help to nurture and develop the next generation of footballing talent.”