Dejected footballers rue postponement
Last-minute postponement tough on players
The series, scheduled to start on September 3, was put on hold only an hour after the PFF confirmed the squad and named a captain. The reasons differ from the mourning period of the Birmingham victims – to which the series was dedicated – to sponsors’ pullout.
However, the national footballers who showed respect and sympathy for the family, took the federation to task for being ill-informed.
“We respect the families’ feelings but the federation should be aware of such matters in advance,” striker Kaleemullah told The Express Tribune.
“We came to know about the postponement when we were preparing for the flight and the news came as huge embarrassment for us.
“We trained a lot for the series. Many of us trained while fasting but it seems that all the hard work has gone in vain.
“We could not spend Ramazan properly and our Eid plans have also been disturbed,” added the Chaman-based footballer.
‘PFF should have confirmed in advance’
Goal-keeper Jahangir Shah also echoed his teammate’s views on the matters.
“The PFF should’ve decided matters in advance which could have saved our energy.We were desperate to beat India. A lot of effort went into the training camp.”
Published in The Express Tribune, August 27th, 2011.
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Amateurish and unprofessional attitude of the federation and organizers is to blame. First we had the confusions regarding the number of matches to be played, then they failed to confirm the venue of the second fixture. And now it seems to have hit a snag. Hope they can overcome this and set a date in the near future. We desperately need fixtures to get practice and exposure. Against India would be a great opportunity, but the fact that it was in Europe was an even bigger thing.
I have to say, this time the PFF had done nothing wrong.
The series' organisation etc was the sole responsibility of a company called 'TouchSky Sports' (TSS). TSS had been chopping and changing the series for last 1 month, had shown very mediocre leadership and marketing aspects and had zero focus on the actual football side of the series, as well as poor public relations and coordination with the Birmingham riot victims families, venue hosts, and sponsors.
For them to really mess things up this one more time, despite PFF spending millions of rupees to ensure all players etc will be ready and the AIFF fighting Indian clubs for release of players, ultimately this is a case of shambolic organisation of TSS.
TouchSky Sports have been a major embarrassment and an utter failure this time.