Constantine’s contract about to expire

The PFF NC will need to renew the Englishman’s tenure after Pakistan’s historic win at the Fifa World Cup qualifiers

KARACHI:

With a historic win Englishman Stephen Constantine has recorded his name among the heroes for the Pakistani football fans.

However, his stay is coming to an end in a few days if the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) Normalisation Committee (NC) does not renew his contract.

Hired less than a month before the crucial 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier, Constantine’s magic worked when Pakistan registered their first win at the World Cup qualifiers.

It was not an easy task to defeat Cambodia, the team that defeated Pakistan in the first round of the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, which was played in 2019.

Bu the men in green successfully won against Cambodia over the two-legged tie with an aggregate of 1-0 on Tuesday at Jinnah Stadium in Islamabad.

It was one precious win that broke the losing streak of 12 matches with eight of them played between November 2022 and June 2023.

Before Constantine’s arrival, the team had only managed to score one goal and conceded 18 in their last eight fixtures.

But all of that seems like a distant memory with this one win against Cambodia for now.

Constantine also touched upon this in the post match press conference and said that he is not sure about his future with Pakistan. Although he has done the job he was hired for, that is, to win against Cambodia.

In the first leg of the tie Pakistan played defensively and stunned Cambodia in their away leg with a goalless draw, but 19-year-old Harun Hamid’s goal in the 68th minute of the second leg at home changed everything for a team that’s ranked 197th in the world.

Constantine replaced Pakistan’s only Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Pro Licensed coach who had built the team since last year.

The former India head coach was hired on a short-term basis, only for the purpose of guiding the team to win the tie against Cambodia.

According to a PFF NC official, Constantine will return to his home in a few days as his contract is expiring.

“Of course, he will return because he was hired for the short-term, and I can say that he has done such a brilliant job with the team,” the official told The Express Tribune. “But his contract is expiring, and he will return later once we renew it. There are many things to consider for example his availability as well. His contract was for more or less around a month-long commitment with us.

“But principally he should stay and take the team to the second round of the World Cup qualifiers as well, I can say that we will be fully in favour of him continuing with us, but for now we have to look at the logistics of renew the contract, he will go back till then.”

Meanwhile, the PFF NC is facing another major setback as they lost possession of the PFF headquarters on Tuesday morning when they were busy organizing the FIFA World Cup qualifier round in Islamabad.

The PFF NC is paralyzed administratively and it will be challenging for them to regain the headquarters confiscated by the Punjab Department of Revenue for a lease that was cancelled in 2021 over the misuse of the rented area of the property that is spread over 1.5 acres (11 kanals and 7 marla to be exact).

The government had leased the land to FIFA for football house for 30 years from 2004 to 2034.