‘The future is not bleak. Pakistan has tremendous potential and young footballers are doing well,’ says former national football coach Tariq Lutfi

The Pakistani soccer team’s poor performance at the recently held SAFF Championship has raised a few eyebrows.

It appears that the standard of the game of football in the country will take ages to show signs of improvement. To find out reasons for Pakistan’s dismal string of performances in the last few years, Sunday Magazine sat down with the former coach of the national soccer team, Tariq Lutfi.

He has the distinction of being the first ever FIFA Coaching Instructor from South Asia and when he was the national team’s coach it managed to win gold medals at the 1989 and 1991 SAF Games.

The following are excerpts from his interview:

Q: When the national soccer side failed at the SAF Championship its coach Akhter Mohiuddin said that the team was not “tactically equipped”. What’s your take on that?

A: I don’t agree with it. Pakistan had won four gold medals at previous SAFF Games, how can you say that the team was not tactically equipped?

The problem is that our officials are incapable of getting good performances from the players.

Q: He also said that the national team coach can’t do anything in conditioning camps.

A: Again, these are lame excuses.

Q: Can a foreign coach do the trick for us, as the PFF suggests?

A: I don’t think so. Without improving the structural setup you cannot succeed. When John Layton was hired as coach of the national team, he roped me in as his assistant. After three days I decided to quit because he wasn’t sharing anything with me. I was meaningless to him.

I have also worked with coaches from Germany, Hungary and many others. Foreign coaches create groupings in the team and develop relationships with a few mediamen just to enhance their reputation. Recently, the PFF president said that an average foreign coach cost about $5,000 to 6,000. I think such a coach is useless for Pakistan because he can’t deliver and will soon leave for his country creating a huge vacuum.

Q: At the SAFF Championship, Pakistan’s was the only team which had players based in other countries. Still it performed poorly. Are you in favour of having foreign players in the side?

A: It is a move to garner publicity. Many of the players that you’ve mentioned live abroad where conditions are different from here, therefore they can’t adjust themselves accordingly while playing in Pakistan. Players must have a commitment to their country.

Q: But top soccer players of Brazil, Argentine and Japan or even Australia from the Asian region play club football in Europe where conditions are different, but they don’t feel any difficulty while playing in their country for their national squads.

A: Well they are professional footballers. And in their countries the ratio of participation in the game is much higher. While in Asia out of 3.4 billion people, only four per cent are associated with the game of soccer, that too at an amateur level. It is a big difference.

Q: But comparatively speaking, isn’t it a good ratio?

A: Commitment and competency are also important. One has to have the desire to play for one’s country. The current Pakistani team has done harm to the name of the country. Q: What do you foresee as far as the game of soccer in the country is concerned?

A: The future is not bleak. Pakistan has tremendous potential and young footballers are doing well. Recently, the Pakistan Under-14 side fought well against Iran despite losing. It’s not a bad result as Iran is one of the toughest teams in Asia. Its performance was also praiseworthy against India. The talent is there.

I have visited many countries, including Brazil and Germany. I can say with conviction that an eight-year-old boy from Layari is as skillful a footballer as an eight-year-old Brazilian boy. But in Brazil there is a system in place which nurtures that kid and helps him develop into a name to reckon with.