KARACHI, April 14 Rumours involving Pakistan national football team's assistant coach Nasir Ismail have once again started doing the rounds in the football circles of the country.

It is being said that Nasir, one of the few qualified Licence 'A' coaches in the country, has been removed from his position of right-hand man of Pakistan Football Federation's (PFF) Chief Coach George Kottan.

Nasir, who was earlier also sacked by Pakistan's other foreign coach, Salman Sharida of Bahrain when he was found to be a bit too interfering, has been involved in all sorts of controversies of late.

As an employee of the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) and coach of the department's team, he had been accused of influencing PFF's newly-hired foreign coach from Austria in selecting players for the national side.

Kottan had even gone on record as saying that the team given to him for the Nepal tournament had not been selected by him.

The national camp for the AFC Challenge Cup Group 'D' qualifiers was set up in Karachi after Kottan complained about the dry grass and uneven surface of the stadiums in Islamabad and Lahore. Nasir, it was said, kept the foreign coach away from two of the best stadiums of Karachi — the People's Sports Complex and the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) — while convincing him to select the Korangi Baloch Stadium in Landhi which doesn't even have proper dressing rooms.

Nasir's latest error was leaking the squad for Sri Lanka to the press even before it could be approved by the PFF president and the chief coach.

Downplaying the rumours about Nasir's sacking on Tuesday, PFF Secretary Col Ahmed Yar Lodhi told Dawn that these things were only being said because Nasir was not a part of the National Football Challenge Cup's (NFCC) technical support group.

“PFF has decided that no departmental coach or official will represent the support group this time,” he explained. “Besides, how can we sack Nasir when Coach Kottan hasn't even submitted his report of the Sri Lanka tour as yet?” he asked.

“We had initially decided to attach some of our senior coaches like Nasir with Coach Kottan for training and he has spent over two months working with him. Now it is up to the coach to decide who he wants to work with,” he added.

“The picture will become clearer when camp is held in preparation for our next assignment, which will probably be a week to 10-day tour of England during June or July, if our resources permit. We will see what the chief coach recommends then,” he concluded.

Meanwhile, sources within the PFF are expecting Coach Kottan to discover plenty of genuine talent during the NFCC matches for which he reached Hyderabad on Tuesday morning with Nasir Ismail no longer around to influence him.