KARACHI: The Pakistan Sports Board on Tuesday blasted the Pakistan Football Federa­tion Normalisation Commi­ttee for submitting incomplete documentation as the country’s sports regulatory body explained why the national team failed to get a no-objection certificate in time for it to make the trip to Bhutan for the SAFF Under-16 Championship.

The NOC for the under-16 team was the latest issue on which the PFF NC and the PSB have been at odds. The team was due to fly to Bhutan on Tuesday but the tour was called off as it didn’t get the NOC.

“We processed the documents on time and we notified the PFF NC that there were some that were missing,” PSB director general Shoaib Khosa told Dawn on Tuesday.

“It’s not the PSB’s prerogative to give or refuse the NOC and we act as a post box in this regard. Since the documents were missing, it couldn’t go to the interior or foreign ministries, which are responsible for giving the NOC. We told the NC that documentation was missing and they couldn’t provide it to us in time.”

Sources close to the team told Dawn that members of the team were “extremely disheartened” upon learning the fact that they weren’t going Bhutan for the tournament.

The PFF NC, however maintained that all documentation that had been asked for had been “timely submitted”.

“The required documents had been submitted well on time,” the PFF NC spokesperson told Dawn. “We only learnt today, when our lawyer went to get an update on the matter, that there were documents missing.”

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2023