Roberts offered team’s head-coach role

Former Tottenham Hotspurs player offered role as Pakistan football’s head coach after work with Asian Games squad.

KARACHI: Former Tottenham Hotspurs player Graham Roberts has been offered a role as Pakistan football’s head coach after his work with the Asian Games squad.

Roberts joined the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) as a consultant for the China-bound squad and although the team lost all three matches, the PFF remains satisfied and is targeting the 2012 Olympic qualifiers and the Asian Football Confederation Challenge Cup.

“We have a busy schedule next year and need a coach and a professional,” PFF Secretary Ahmed Yar Lodhi told The Express Tribune.  “Roberts has those capabilities and we’ve asked him to give us a plan. But he’s asked a very heavy package and we’ve told him to reconsider.”

Meanwhile, according to the PFF, Roberts has prepared an 18- month plan to improve the state of Pakistan’s football which links with the federation’s plans as well.

“We’re expecting Roberts to submit the three-year plan today and if things work out, he’ll take charge by mid-December,” said the PFF marketing head Naveed Haider.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 16^th, 2010.