July 6, 2002	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 24,1423

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KARACHI, July 5: Amid the gloom and doom there is a glimmer of hope for soccer fans as they anxiously wait for the repercussion of the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) accounts audit.

The mismanagement of the US$one-million FIFA grant and dismal scenario had forced the sports ministry to probe into PFF accounts books through Pakistan Sports Board (PSB).

The PFF receives $250,000 annually as part of Financial Assistance Programme (FAP) and has accumulated $750,000 since 1999. The last $250,000 instalment is due later this year.

The federation is expected to get richer after adding $400,000 through FIFA’s Goal Project for which Pakistan was selected last year.

Besides the FIFA package, two Asian Football Confederation- paid coaches are also at PFF’s disposal on a three-year contract.

But while the sport fascinates the followers world over, it is ailing in Pakistan, chiefly because of incompetent football Tsars who are at least apathetic if not corrupt.

Country’s like South Korea reached the World Cup semifinals despite being rank outsiders — an achievement which helped them leapfrog from 40 to 22 in the world rankings.

Although Pakistan made some improvement in the world rankings after the induction of foreign coaches, they are still languishing at 182nd.

Apart from in-fighting, leg-pulling, dispatching brigades of joyriders to overseas tours, trips abroad under the garb of FIFA and AFC meetings was the only thing the PFF officials had concentrated on.

The critics and followers were delighted when Pakistan was chosen for the FAP, hoping that soccer, which had been plagued by vicious politics, duels for grabbing power, would prosper.

But instead of pulling the game out of morass, the PFF has failed to map out a single programme for the youth football despite having financial resources at its disposal.

The PFF spent FIFA money, not on a specific youth programme, but mostly on holding training camps for the tournaments abroad, while some expenses were also borne by the PSB.

At the moment not a single tangible development programme exists at the grassroots level.

To have an idea of how the FIFA money was wasted during the last three years it is enough to know that Pakistan does not have Under-14 and Under-16 squads, although the PFF has a trained foreign coach specially assigned to train youngsters.

While countries like Sri Lanka and Maldives, the two beneficiaries of the FAP, are busy in sharpening their players skills, PFF could not start its national league despite repeated directives from the AFC.

The foundations of the Football House are yet to be laid as the PFF is still in the process of searching a suitable piece of land to built its headquarters.

The PFF’s coffers are ballooning, but footballers groan and moan with the federation least bothered to spend on promotion of the sport.

The national Under-20 squad that trained for a little over a month for the Asian qualifiers organized in Karachi from April 25, was given mere Rs40 per day as allowance.

Officials expected the players to perform wonders, while the PFF even did not deem necessary to provide a doctor and a kitman to the players at the camp.

Needless to say the PFF put the country’s name on the line by preparing a sandy, bumpy pitch for the qualifiers. The contestants — Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives, had reacted sharply and the Bangladesh coach, George Kottan, had even dubbed the surface as “rugby field.”

With FIFA’s aid pouring into PFF vaults and trained coaches available free of charge, it is a last opportunity for Pakistan to raise the sport’s standard or it will never flourish.

If one analyses FIFA’s role, it is merely a spectator, more interested in keeping its vote bank intact rather than annoy its affiliated countries by reprimanding them for mismanaging the funds.

The FAP and Goal Project are FIFA president Sepp Blatter’s brainchild. Both programmes are excellent ideas — openly handing underdeveloped nations the chance to improve their soccer foundations.

At the same time they buy a certain allegiance from those countries. Why would any of them want to bite the hand that feeds them? The PFF, like many countries picked for FAP and Goal Project, had openly announced before FIFA elections it would vote in Blatter’s favour.

And it was the FAP and Goal Project that swept Blatter to a landslide 83-vote victory in May, installing him as FIFA chief for the second time.

The suspension of Kenya Football Federation (KFF) by FIFA after it was dissolved by Kenyan sports minister Francis Nyenze in May for being involved in financial irregularities, is a perfect example of how FIFA takes care of its affiliates.

FIFA had also refused to recognise the disbandment of Tanzania Football Association in 2000 and excluded Tanzania from all international competitions until it elected new officials in 2001. Once again the mismanagement of the FIFA funds was the reason for disbandment of the Tanzanian body.

What could one anticipate from FIFA whose chief had been accused of misusing funds and that too by his own secretary and executive committee members.

Given the fact FIFA does not seem concerned over the mismanagement of its aid by the PFF, the ugly situation had demanded a thorough audit of the PFF accounts by the government.

Even if the happy-go-lucky PFF hierarchy escapes corruption charges, it is, of course, guilty of mismanaging the FIFA grant — an act that calls for a severe action.

The second step should be PFF elections as per national sports policy after banning the present top brass from contesting the polls.