28 August 2004	Saturday	11 Rajab 1425

KARACHI, Aug 27: The ongoing national football league - country's premier event has been reduced to practice sessions with FIFA rules being blatantly violated , while Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) on Friday admitted the fact, saying it would seek explanation from the match officials.

The breach of rules which are being committed from the start of the league continues while the concerned match officials say they could not help much as violation of regulations are what they say part of society.

For instance, the Baloch Club players wore jerseys with illegible numbers during a match against Habib Bank here at Aga Khan Gymkhana. But for match commissioner Tariq Lutfi and referee inspector Nawab Kareem it was not a serious violation while FIFA prohibits teams from entering the field without proper jersey numbers.

On Thursday, PTCL coach Younus Khan entered the field during play to give a glass of water to one of his injured players while unauthorized persons could be seen on the team benches and match commissioner's place.

"The teams don't have money and they are playing without proper kits and footballs. How they are supposed to have shirts with proper numbers," said Nawab when asked why the team was allowed to enter the field with faded numbers.

"We had asked Baloch Club to use pen to make the numbers darker but they declined. Besides, where is honesty? Everybody is breaching the rules then why should we implement and enforce the rules on poor clubs. Why the teams should not violate the rules," the official added.

PFF director technical, Mujahid Ullah Khan, conceded neither any side could enter without proper shirt numbers nor could any official, especially coach, could be allowed to go into the field during play.

The PFF official did not mince words in saying match commissioner, referee inspector being paid Rs300 as daily allowance and referee were responsible for keeping a check on violations.

"Both are violations of FIFA rules. Three officials - match commissioner, referee inspector and referee - are responsible for checking these kinds of offences.

PFF will ask explanation from the officials who officiated the game during which rules were breached and they could even be removed. I have received feedback that rules are not being followed but we are trying to implement them fully," Mujahid said.

The official said PFF, after receiving complaints of violations, had sent a circular to all the referee inspectors to implement the rules and added violations were not trivial matter since they would damage the base of the players.