December 31, 2006	Sunday	Zilhaj 09, 1427

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LAHORE, Dec 30: Every national sports federation will be held accountable for its poor performance at international level in future, irrespective of how powerful a man is heading it.

Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) president, Lt Gen Syed Arif Hasan, told a press conference after presiding over the general council meeting, which discussed the poor performance of the Pakistan's contingent in the 15th Asian Games, held in Doha Qatar from Dec 1 to 15.

“The head of the national federations have accepted responsibility of their poor showing in the Asiad and they have assured a better performance in future and pledged they will be ready for accountability for similar performance in future,” the president said.

Asked how the POA would take accountability, since influential persons from the services, bureaucrats and politicians belonging to the ruling party were running those federations, the

the POA chief stated :” You can ask from the servicemen, how he addressed them for the poor performance of their game in the Asiad and I assure you the accountability will be for all, irrespective of their ranks,” he said.

Around 12 persons, from Army, Navy and Air Force head different federations while as many are bureaucrats and politicians.

Asked if there was any flaw in the planning of the POA and the Pakistan Sports Board for the Asiad as the performance was worst than the last edition in Busan, despite heavy investment made on the preparations of the contingent, Arif explained that the standard of the international game had improved a lot and admitted Pakistan was well behind the international community in sports.

The president said the federations were ready to amend their constitutions making them accountable for further debacle in future.

“The representative of the national federations have done some ‘soul-searching’ and I do hope they will launch extensive efforts to improve the standard, otherwise, they will face the axe,” he said.

“I will also like to accept the responsibility, but it is fact the POA provided all facilities to the federations, but I am equally disappointed over the poor performance in Qatar,” he said.

He said steps would be taken at school, clubs and other level to improve the standard of the game. But he added, it would take some five to ten years to produce results.The president said all the national federations had given a target to identify at least 100 talented athletes to have a back up.

He said federations had failed to prepare the back-up, as various athletes, touching the age of 40, were the lone choice to represent the country at the Asian level.

Arif, pointed out that Youth Development Programme would be launched, most probably from Jan 15, in national institutions and at provincial level as it was the only way out to come out from the poor standard of the sports in the country.

He said to improve the standard of the National Games, foreign teams would also be competing with the national teams in the mega event.

“The decision of inviting foreign teams for the national games will help us to understand the real potential of our players,” he said.

“Currently Army and Wapda are the two main contenders in the national games for the Quaid-I-Azam Trophy but the quality of their game is not enough to produce international level players,” he said.