KARACHI, Nov 17: Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) on Monday said it will seek explanation from national coach Tariq Lutfi for breaching the code of conduct by naming the captain for the senior side.

A top PFF official said the coach had violated the code of conduct by naming the captain since only the president of the federation was authorized to approve the captains and squads for the competitions.

“What Tariq did is totally against the code of conduct. Although coach could nominate players for final selection, he is not entitled to name captain of the squad,” secretary of the PFF, Arshad Lodhi, said.

The PFF official was reacting over the announcement made recently by Tariq in which he bypassed the PFF president, naming veteran Haroon Yousuf as the captain of the squad which is yet to be announced for the Nov 29 World Cup pre-qualifying home game against Kyrgyzstan and away on Dec 2 in Bishkek.

According to the PFF constitution, Tariq’s act was a clear violation of its article 8 B 1 (f) which says “the president shall approve the officials and selections for the national teams and their captains for the competitions at home and abroad.”

Arshad said he would seek an explanation from Tariq for violating code of conduct but refrained from disclosing what action could be taken against the coach.

“I will definitely ask him (Tariq) the reason why he made such a statement. We have number of options available to deal with such situations,” the official said.

Arshad said although Tariq could point out players for the selection of the squad, he was not a member of the selection committee.

Haroon’s appointment as captain is rather more surprising since the squad for the home and away is yet to be announced.

The squad was scheduled to be announced on Nov 9 and training from the next day, but poor response from the probables put the selection committee in quandary.

The statement by Tariq may end on embarrassment for Haroon as there are indications the midfielder, who is at the twilight of his career and his performance on decline, may not be able to get selectors’ nod.

“It is not necessary that Haroon will be selected. It all depends on the chairman of selection committee and its members whether they want to include him or not,” Arshad said.

Meanwhile, PFF is still to appoint coaches for the senior and junior teams for forthcoming assignments.

Currently, Tariq is supervising Dhaka-bound Under-20 squad for the Asian championship qualifiers next month and the senior probables for pre-qualifying games assembled at Steel Mills football ground.

The junior team is likely to leave for Bangladesh capital on Nov 28, a day before the home match the seniors are to play against Kyrgyzstan in Karachi.

Tariq has been involved in selection and training of junior side, although he had refused to train an Under-23 squad earlier this year for SAF Games, saying he was a senior team coach.

Arshad said the senior squad would probably be announced within two days, while the coaches would also be appointed after the approval of president.