KARACHI: Mohammed Al Shamlan was hoping Zesh Rehman’s arrival would do Pakistan a world of good for the first leg of their first-round 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Yemen on Thursday.

Now, though, Pakistan’s Bahraini head coach will have to do without the former Fulham defender after his Malaysian club Pahang FA refused to release him for the game in at Doha’s Grand Hammad Stadium.

Shamlan was hoping Zesh’s experience would come in handy and identified the experienced central defender to line-up with Denmark-based Nabil Aslam to provide stability at the back after Pakistan’s leaky defence let in seven goals in four preparatory games for the Yemen tie.

Malaysian club refuses to release former Fulham defender for Yemen World Cup qualifier

In a two-week long tour of Malaysia and Thailand, Pakistan beat the Malaysian U-19 team 3-1 before losing 2-1 to the Malaysian U-22 team, 2-0 to Thai Premier League club Osotspa and 2-0 to the Thai U-23 side.

“They [Nabil and Zesh] bring with them a lot of experience and more solidity at the back and that might help us solve our defensive problems,” Shamlan told Dawn before the team left on Monday for the Qatari capital where Zesh was expected to join them.

But Pahang’s refusal to release the player, who played in the goalless draw against Global FC in the AFC Cup on Wednesday, gives Shamlan a potentially disturbing defensive dilemma as they seek revenge for their 5-1 and 3-0 defeats to Yemen in the qualifiers for the 1994 FIFA World Cup.

Pakistan team manager Asghar Khan Anjum, however, wasn’t too concerned.

“His absence will not affect the morale of the team,” he told Dawn from Doha on Wednesday. “He hadn’t been training with us and wasn’t on the preparatory tour as well so it doesn’t matter really.

“He’s communicated to the coach and so Shamlan will decide what to do. We’re confident with the options we have.”

Zesh’s absence, meanwhile, was a cause of great furore in the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF).

“He should’ve been released,” PFF secretary Col Ahmed Yar Khan Lodhi told Dawn from Lahore on Wednesday. “We’ll be writing to FIFA regarding this matter. We’ll take this case forward and the club [Pahang] should be sanctioned.”

In the FIFA regulations on the status and transfer of players, it is stated that “release of players is mandatory for all international windows listed in the international match calendar”.

However, the calendar for 2015 has dates from March 23-31 marked as ones for official or friendly matches.

When Lodhi was informed about the matter, he stated: “Pahang were bound to release Zesh because this is an official FIFA match.”

FIFA meanwhile states that “both the preliminary and final competition of the 2018 FIFA World Cup are FIFA events and as such fall under the responsibility of football’s world governing body.”

FIFA is supported by the confederations in the organisation of the preliminary competition, it adds.

On part of Zesh, meanwhile, he was looking forward to the AFC Cup match more than the World Cup qualifier.

“Looking forward to our 1st home AFC Cup game of 2015 Tomorrrow night at the Darul Makmur stadium,” Zesh wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.

Shamlan now will have to put his trust in Bahrain-based defender Mohammad Ahmed to provide defensive stability with the PFF stressing that now they “don’t need Zesh even for the second leg” in Lahore on March 17.

Victory for Pakistan in the tie will take them through to the second round where the likes of Asian champions Australia, Japan and Iran enter the fray on the road to the World Cup in Russia.

The second round also merges qualifying for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup which will see 24 teams take part in the tournament which will be hosted by the United Arab Emirates.

The first round of Asian qualifying sees the continent’s 12 lowest-ranked teams kicking off the worldwide qualification marathon.

In other ties, India face Nepal, Bhutan have an uphill task against Sri Lanka, Chinese Taipei clash with Brunei, Cambodia are up against Macau and Timor Leste meet Mongolia.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2015

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