Football: Serb’s appointment a waste of money say senior Pakistan players
The PFF hired Milosavljevic on a two-year contract and his first assignment will be to prepare the team for the Saff Cup that will be played next month.
The Serb has also taken over the supervision of the camp from former coach Tariq Lutfi where 22 players, all from the under-23 squad, are in training.
According to Wapda striker Arif Mehmood, who played for Pakistan against Malaysia and Palestine earlier this year, a new coach can only train the team to a certain extent and the PFF needed to invest in facilities and infrastructure.
“By the time these foreign coaches understand the crux of the matter, it’s time for them to go,” Mehmood told The Express Tribune. “The biggest problem with Pakistan football is that there are no facilities for the players. The appointment of a foreign coach can only make sense if we have everything else in place.
“We’ve had foreign coaches before as well but none of them worked for us.”
Meanwhile, former Pakistan captain Mohammad Essa Khan said that only time will tell of the team’s progress under Milosavljevic. On the other hand, Lutfi has refused to assist Milosavljevic, saying that he cannot work with a foreign coach.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 7th, 2011.
COMMENTS (4)
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senior players monopoly. Federation must stand firm in its decision. These "senior" players are useless. Better lose them.
Very unimpressive reasoning by our "senior" players.
domestic football can only be improved if the game is professionalised, department football teams are abolished, private clubs and teams are formed, and public/corporate sectors get involved.
long term appointment of qualified ambitious foreign coaching staff is a hallmark of success in developing football nations. Our domestic coaches are part of their specific departments or provincial FA lobbies and cannot and will not ever be good enough unless these departments are abolished.
Bad attitude of Players and Lutfi.
Well, its the coaches that need to bring in new methods and a change of mentality that then can inspire some positive results which hopefully can lead to change...Arif plays for wapda, one of the biggest domestic sides, what facilities have they developed? everything is not PFF's job to develop but domestic teams have to develop their own facilities. non of these domestic teams have proper youth set ups or professional staff. The fact is only time we have won anything in last 10years came under foreign coaches, 2004 SAF Games under Chinese coach and 2006 SAF Games under Bahraini coach Salman Sharida...while under Lutfi we won 1 match all year and scored on 3 goals!! Isnt that enough justification that our coaches are not upto the mark. Maybe our players need to start performing on the pitch to get picked by foreign coach now and not by political or departmental affiliations!!