If PFF permits: ‘Coaches can save football in Pakistan’

Former national trainers call for formation of representative body

KARACHI: Pakistan Football Federation (PFF), among all other things, is now getting blamed for not doing enough for the benefit of country’s football coaches and not constituting a body to safeguard their larger interests.

In a country where there is no professional football league and even the players don’t have a representative alliance, national team assistant coach Shahzad Anwar and former national coach Tariq Lutfi feel a countrywide association for coaches would have done the trick.

In the duo’s opinion, if all the coaches were united, the state of football in Pakistan, for some reason, would not have been as gloomy as it is now. “A few coaches did float the idea of an association but the PFF never really supported it,” Anwar told The Express Tribune.

“A coaches association would have helped, although like most other bodies in our country, it too would likely have suffered from infighting and politics,” added Anwar, one of Pakistan’s few A-licensed coaches.

Lutfi, who was one of the coaches who floated the idea of forming a coach’s association to the PFF, wants to have one more go but admits the lack of quality, character and integrity in the coaching fraternity remains a stumbling block in his plans.

“Even if we can gather 20 good coaches we can form an association, but it shouldn’t be like our current referees association, where one person compromises on principle and shakes hands with the PFF,” said Lutfi.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 30^th, 2016.

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