Alam Zeb Safi – The News
KARACHI: A couple of coaches who were already in the list of officials of the teams playing in the Pakistan Premier Football League were also seen working as coaches for teams playing in the PFF League B Division, ‘The News’ has learnt through highly reliable sources.
Nasim Ahmad, who is an employee of Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) and AFC Licence A coach, had already been working as coach of the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) in the Premier League, but he also worked as the coach of SSGC in the second tier league.
The PFF has, belatedly though, directed the match commissioners through a circular the other day that Naseem should not be allowed to sit on the bench of the SSGC anymore, sources said.
The last game of the departmental ‘group of five’ round, which will also decide who will rise to the next year’s Premier League, will be held between SSGC and Railways here at the KPT Stadium on Saturday (today).
Haji Abdul Sattar, whose name is in the officials’ list of the Premier League team Pak Afghan Clearing Agency (PACA) as a Licence B coach, also worked as the coach of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) in the PFF League B Division.
This correspondent learnt that Haji Abdul Sattar was never seen on the PACA’s bench during any match of the Premier League. The match commissioners have mentioned him absent in all their reports.
A top official of PFF confirmed that as Abdul Sattar was never seen on PACA’s bench in the top league, the Chaman-based outfit has been fined for the violation of the Premier League rules under which a team is to be fined Rs25,000 per match if it appeared in a game without any AFC Licence B coach on their bench.
More interestingly, goalkeeper Mohammad Shehzad, who is already in the players’ list of Navy in the Premier League, was seen on the bench of the Karachi United as goalkeeper coach in the second tier league.
When the PFF Director Competitions and Development Pervez Saeed Mir was contacted he said that he would be able to make a comment on the issue after reading the rules and regulations.
A highly experienced official of a Premier League team pointed out that the technical regulations say that a player cannot play in both the leagues in the same year. “If a player cannot play in both the leagues in the same year, how could a coach serve two teams playing in separate leagues in the same year,” he questioned.
Astonishingly, Pakistan’s seasoned goalkeeper Jaffar Khan had been present in the Army’s team list as a player in the Premier League but he was seen working as physiotherapist in a few games. Ultimately he was stopped by a match commissioner from acting as physiotherapist. Jaffar is nursing a serious knee injury and is not playing in the current season in the top league.