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KARACHI: The Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) has decided to exclude players over the age of 23 from the national team in any of the upcoming tournaments.
“We will stick to our policy and will not pick those players for the coming events who are above 23 years of age,” PFF secretary Col Ahmed Yar Lodhi told The News.
This means that the PFF is effectively ending the international careers of home-based players who exceed this age limit. However, this does not apply to foreign based players.
“This policy will not be applied to foreign-based players because we want to bring our foreign-based community closer,” Lodhi said.
So, while experienced home based players like goalkeeper Jaffar Khan and defender Samar Ishaq were dropped by the PFF for the later canceled two-match series against India in England, foreign based experienced players like Adan Ahmed were included in the squad.
The decision to drop over-23 players was supported and prompted by Pakistan’s former consultant Graham Roberts, who also stressed on bringing in younger players rather than continuing with the senior players.
“Graham Roberts had told us that we should focus on juniors, who will help form a better team for the future,” Lodhi said.
This decision by the PFF has been severely criticized by people such as Pakistan’s coach, Tariq Lutfi and former captain Mohammad Essa.
Lutfi warned against making such rules binding while talking to The News.
“There should not be such hard and fast rules and those seniors who are outstanding should be given chance to serve the country,” he said.
Mohammad Essa also expressed his outrage over this decision.
“It’s strange that a senior player who can deliver could be ignored for ever,” he said.
“A player who attains an age of 25 or 27 is forced to retire in Pakistan. There is no sound policy here to run and build a team for the future,” he continued.
He referred to the Indian football team and how the players included in it are those who have played against Pakistan at under-19, under-20 and under-23 levels, whereas none of the Pakistani players who have played against them at those levels will be included in the team.
“Here the bright juniors are put directly in the national team without grooming them properly at the lower level which ultimately destroys their careers,” he concluded.
Pakistan’s next tournament will be the SAFF Championship which will be held in India in December.
