January 23, 2007	Tuesday	Muharram 03, 1428

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KARACHI, Jan 22: Pakistan received a major blow to their Olympic football qualifying campaign when a top official confirmed on Monday that coach Salman Ahmad Sharida’s fate hangs in the balance and he might not be able to join the squad.

After a long, mysterious silence the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) came up with an explanation for Sharida’s absence from national training camp here, saying it had been facing a catch-22 situation as coach had been waiting for a renewal of contract with Bahrain Football Association which expired recently.

“Frankly speaking, we don’t know for sure whether Sharida is coming before we leave for the Olympic qualifying away match in Singapore,” the PFF President Faisal Saleh Hayat told Dawn. “Since Sharida is still in negotiations with Bahrain Football Association, therefore, we are not sure whether he will be able to join us. If Sharida doesn’t have a contract with Bahraini association, he can’t come here as his services were provided by the Bahrain government.”

Although Faisal didn’t mince words in saying that he had overruled Sharida’s suggestion to withdraw Pakistan squad from December’s Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, he ruled out any possibility of a rift between the PFF and the coach.

Faisal says Sharida wanted the PFF not to field the team in the Doha event since he felt that it might shake the confidence and morale of the players if team loses by huge margins against Asian giants such as Japan and South Korea.

“I indeed didn’t agree with Shairda as I think we can give confidence to the players only by fielding them against as many teams as we can. And we produced unbelievable results, losing just 2-3 to Japan and 0-1 to Korea.

“But there is no question of any differences between me and Sharida. That was not the first time that I overruled Sharida’s suggestion. There were many occasions on which I didn’t agree with him, although I have respect for his opinion and he is done a good job.

“Similarly, Sharida is not unhappy because of any politics or intrigues against him. Some local people may be willing to take his place, but we can’t stop anybody from day dreaming or wishing to become the Pakistan coach,” PFF chief said.

There are reports that an irritated Sharida went straight to his home country Bahrain from Doha Games either because of some rift between him and the PFF or intriguing plots to topple him by some local mischievous elements.

Pakistan are to play Singapore in away qualifying match on Feb 7 following home match on Feb 14 in Peshawar. According to camp commandant, Irfan Khan Niazi, the squad is expected to be announced on Wednesday and team leaves on Feb 3 for Singapore.

Sharida has been with Pakistan squad since October 2005 when he took over charge weeks before the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) championship in Karachi.

Currently, Mohammad Rasheed and goalkeeping coach Mohammad Afzal are supervising camp training in Sharida’s absence. The camp is running since Jan 15.

However, Faisal said although in the present scenario he would like to see local coaches, who had been with Sharida for a year and a half, to take the squad for the all-important event, he said a Brazilian coach, currently serving with Pakistan Air Force, might be asked to join the squad.

“If Sharida joins us it’s fine. If we are provided Sharida’s alternate it is fine too. But even then we have a Brazilian currently coaching PAF. We might be able to convince PAF to send the coach with us for Singapore trip. But I can’t say whether he will assist our coaches or the local coaches will be his deputies. We will sort it out in consultation with our technical officials,” said the PFF official.

Faisal says since Pakistan Under-13 squad is already under a German, input from a Brazilian coach will be motivating factor for the players since Brazil are the football powerhouse.

“I have gone through his (Brazilian coach) CV and I believe it is impressive. I feel his presence in the squad will definitely give us a boost as his technical input will be of great help to Pakistan squad.”

However, at the moment, Pakistan probables are involved only in physical training at Hockey Club of Pakistan as unavailability of quite a few players is leading to lack of tactical drills and match practice.

The reason being the ongoing national league in which most of the camp trainees are busy representing their respective departments.