LAHORE, Jan 12: The Slovenian coach of the Pakistan football team Joseph Herel was unhappy over not shifting of the national training camp to Karachi according to his plan.

The camp has been in progress at the Model Town Club ground since the first week of December 2001 to prepare the team for the forthcoming SAFF Championship to be held at Dhaka from Jan 26 to Feb 5.

The coach who recently joined the national training camp and announced a 20-member team for the competition had requested the PFF on Wednesday to make arrangements for shifting of the camp to Karachi tentatively by Jan 12.

“No exact dates have been conveyed to me as yet by the PFF about the shifting of the camp to Karachi” Herel told Dawn on Saturday.

The coach pointed out that he took the decision of shifting the camp to Karachi after finding no competitive teams in Lahore, which would enable the squad to play some good practice matchs before its departure for Dhaka on Jan 22. He said that a request made to the Wapda team was turned down because the departmental team was busy in its own inter-unit championship.

He said that he had planned to hold last 10 days training at Karachi, but since the PFF was unable to confirm him the exact date for shifting of the camp to that city it would ultimately affect his preparation plans. He said that Karachi had many tough teams which could provide strenuous training to his boys.

 Herel said that the camp could be shifted to Karachi any day.

The national camp will be held at the Pakistan Steel Mills, Karachi.

When contacted PFF officials said that the camp would be shifted to Karachi in a couple of days.