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LAHORE: Pakistan hockey, which has been experiencing one crisis after the other for many many years both on and off the field, suffered yet another blow on Thursday. And this time the setback is not just upsetting, it is highly embarrassing too.
Siegfried Aikman, the Dutch head coach of Pakistan’s national team, has tendered his resignation citing the unpaid salary which has been pending for more than one year.
It is the first time that a foreign coach has resigned over the issue of payment as Pakistan always honoured its commitment made with foreign officials.
Aikman, who was hired by the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) on a monthly salary of $10,000 in December 2021, was to be paid by the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB), which had hired five coaches for other games too along with Aikman.
However, in a highly disturbing scenario Aikman did not get his salary, mainly because the PHF headed by retired Brig Khalid Sajjad Khokhar had developed strained relations with the PSB.
The PHF, amid the team’s freefall in the national game during the past ten years or so, is facing a significant financial crisis and therefore it was unable to fulfil Aikman’s fundamental requirement.
In his resignation letter a copy of which was obtained by Dawn, though the 64-year-old coach sounded sombre yet he was plain in giving the reason for his unceremonious departure.
“Dear President and Secretary General Pakistan Hockey Federation. Through this letter I, Siegfried Aikman, resign as Head Coach of the Pakistan Hockey Team,” Aikman wrote in the resignation.
“When I was allowed, I worked with all my heart and passion with and for the team. I wanted to bring Pakistan [hockey] back to the top of the world.
“Unfortunately, the circumstances were very difficult and we couldn’t work according to the plan and the contract. The Pakistan Hockey Federation was unable to pay my coaching fee for over 1 year. This brought me in serious financial trouble,” he continued.
“I have addressed this issue many times unofficially and officially with you. This didn’t make that my salary was being paid. I have good hope and faith that the Pakistan Hockey Federation will respect the contract we had and will pay me my earned salary in the near future,” he added.
Without naming the country, Aikman in the letter also mentioned that he had received a good coaching opportunity from there.
“I got a good opportunity to get another coaching job in a developing country who really wants to try to improve its hockey according to a plan and will stick to the plan. This country will pay my salary and will enable me to take care of my family,” read the letter.
“For me this is an important issue. I regret that we [Aikman and PHF] departed this way, but I can’t stay without income anymore. Wishing Pakistan Hockey a great and bright future and who knows what future will bring but for now I sadly say goodbye.
“Thank you for having me as your Head Coach,” Aikman concludes.
When Dawn tried to contact PSB director general Shoaib Khosa, he was reluctant to respond on the issue of Aikman’s resignation.
No PHF official was available either despite many attempts to contact them to get their comment on the unfortunate scenario. Here it is relevant to mention that the PSB has been asking retired Brig Khokhar, who was elected as PHF president in 2016, to quit but he is not willing to do so.
Instead he held fresh PHF elections last year and was re-elected as president for the 2022-26 term.
During his tenure, Pakistan descended alarmingly in international hockey.
The green-shirts, the former four-time hockey World Cup winners, three-time Olympic gold medallists and three-time Champions Trophy victors, stand nowhere in the present world hockey. They could not even qualify for the 2023 World Cup (Bhubaneswar) and had finished a miserable 12th in the 16-nation global event, also staged in Bhubaneswar, in 2018.
Similarly in Olympics, Pakistan failed to reach the 2016 (Rio de Janeiro) and 2020 (Tokyo) editions. Not having won the Champions Trophy title since 1994, the country came last in the 2018 six-team event staged at Breda, Netherlands.
Despite this massive set of Pakistan hockey disasters neither the PHF president is ready to quit nor the PSB is willing to support the federation financially, which it had done in the past.
Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2023
