Why?
by Malik Riaz Hai Naveed - webmaster of FootballPakistan.com
by Malik Riaz Hai Naveed - webmaster of FootballPakistan.com
16th August 2006:
“Why?” is the only question to ask this time. Why did Pakistan lose against Oman? Why were they so less people in the stadium? Why is PFF like this? Why did Zeshan Rehman, Shakeel Ahmed and Usman Gondal not play?
That’s all we have to ask the Pakistan Football Federation who do not deserve to carry the name of our country Pakistan. I actually wanted to write about my trip in July to Pakistan but now I need to express my feelings because it makes me really sad to see the way Pakistani Football is going.
No way have we improved since janab Faisal Salah Hayat took over and not this much that in every Press Release of the PFF it should be mentioned “It was one of the many landmarks under PFF’s President, Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat…” We are still a poor football nation. Not poor in money because we have a lot of money, but I really want to know where all the FIFA and AFC funds have gone. Maybe a building of $700,000 costs in Pakistan, which uses up the entire yearly funds/grants worth millions of US$, can be one answer.
During my time this summer I have seen every sides of the Pakistani Football Business. I have seen “sifarish” and people who have nothing to do with football sitting in the PFF House. I have also seen sleeping talent which is not promoted due to this political bakwaas. One story is that I sent my friend, Shakeel Ahmed of Gateshead FC, from England to Pakistan when the national training camp was underway as I was sure he will be selected for the team. He flew from England to Pakistan only for the camp, and an international flight ticket is not that cheap as you can imagine.
He stayed in the camp and scored in his first match on the 2nd day 3 Goals and he assisted 3 others. The team accepted him immediately and he was included as “one from them”. But then suddenly he was kicked out of the team without any understandable reason. Even our Bahraini coach Salman Sharida praised his skills. But unfortunately, and shockingly, Shakeel flew back to England.
Do you remember Zeshan Rehman? Or in England called “Zesh”? He is now playing for Queen’s Park Rangers FC in the English Championship. He sacrificed his dream of becoming an England national team player in order to play for his roots in Pakistan, despite the fact he had played in the entire England Youth setup and was looking good for a senior side chance down the road. But no, he decided to help Pakistan. After the way he was treated by PFF for the SAFF Cup 2005 he never came back.
Why? We need to ask this the PFF. Why don’t they support the best Pakistani player in the world? They don’t respect him; they treated him like some fancy paper plate, used him and then discarded him away.
Or you heard of Usman Gondal, who is an ex-Leicester City FC reserve/youth team star and a gifted, young striker? He also has no luck with the PFF despite he is the best youngster we have. All those players from Europe were introduced by me to the PFF but they didn’t take the chance to improve the Football in Pakistan.
We really don’t have any structure for Football in Pakistan. We should have proper leagues from grass root levels. Children from the age of 10 should start regular training in clubs so that the bigger clubs can select them and build them to players which can play in better leagues across Asia, and maybe in Europe.
I gave a Presentation for a league structure system for Pakistan to PFF and if we start with this, we will also start to play proper football that will give us properly trained and fit players to help choose our best national XI.
For one thing, Pakistani football doesn’t need a stupid “selection committee” to select a squad; like all proper football-playing nations, that should be the sole responsibility of the appointed coach only, so that he selects the best players based on talent and skill. Keep these “selection committees” for cricket please. A lot of Pakistani football problems arise from such a bureaucratic approach to sport; in fact all Pakistani sports are not doing well because of “selection committees”, one example is Field Hockey.
Anyway I can also say we have some, really only some people in Pakistan which take interest in the prosperity of Pakistani Football, but those some are not supported by the PFF hierarchy even if they hold posts in the Federation.
But all this will not happen if we keep those lazy, “sifarshee” people in our PFF House. We need people who love football, who really love their country Pakistan, and who really want Pakistan to become a force in the Asian and World football spectrum rather than be the mediocre sides who just fill the numbers here, as our sides unfortunately have been doing for 50 odd years.
All this should stop now and we should change everything from A-Z.
Thank you for your attention and keep praying to almighty Allah that someday, even when we are not in this world, people change Pakistani Football to the good side. Ameen
Yours,
Malik Riaz Hai Naveed (info@footballpakistan.com; malikriazpak@hotmail.com)
Pakistan Zindabad!
I promptly did add a few lines but its his own words that I tried to sound more firm, and I guess I did a good job in the end.
What are your thoughts about this ???
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