KARACHI, Nov 20: National football coach Tariq Lutfi escaped penalty for being involved in breaching the code of conduct, denying that he announced the captain for the senior side.

“Tariq has denied he ever announced that Haroon Yousuf will be the captain. He said he had been misquoted and he could never appoint the captain as it is the job of top Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) officials,” PFF secretary Arshad Lodhi said on Thursday.

Interestingly, Tariq, who had been quoted by the media on Nov 17 as saying that veteran Haroon would be the captain, never bothered to deny the report before being asked for an explanation by the PFF.

PFF constitution says only PFF president is entitled to approve the captains, squads and officials for competitions at home and abroad.

Arshad rejected a report which quoted PFF president Faisal Saleh Hayat as saying that Tariq had not been asked for an explanation. “Yes of course Tariq was asked to explain through executive secretary and he replied he has been misquoted.”

The PFF secretary did not mince words in saying nobody except the top officials could announce the name of the captain.

“I have taken a strong notice on the report that Tariq had announced the name of the captain and I will take cognizance in future too if I see anybody violating the code of conduct,” Arshad vowed while giving a stern warning to those who try to challenge PFF officials authority in future.

Tariq had also sparked a controversy in the past when he had refused to coach the Under-23 squad for the SAF Games that were to be organized in Islamabad earlier this year, saying he was the senior team coach and wanted to rest after a tour of Dhaka.

However, he suddenly changed his mind and instead toured Singapore along with seniors despite complaining fatigue. Surprisingly, now he has been involved in selecting and training Under-20 squad which leaves for Dhaka to take part in Asian championship qualifiers.

The coach was about to tour Dhaka along with the youth squad before it was disclosed that World Cup pre-qualifying home game will be played this month. After the new development he has been attached with the senior side.

Meanwhile, after a delay of 11 days, the selectors finally submitted a 20-member squad for the World Cup pre-qualifying home and away games against Kyrgyzstan on Thursday.

“I have submitted names of 20 players today to the PFF. Now it is up to the federation to decide the strength of the squads for the two games,” chairman of the selection committee, Col Yunus Changezi said.

Pakistan are scheduled to meet Kyrgyzstan on Nov 29 here at People’s Sports Complex and on Nov 3 in Bishkek in the away game.

Yunus said initially 27 probables reported at the camp set up here at Steel Mills of which four left. Twenty players had been shortlisted from 23 for the approval of the PFF president, he added.

The squad which was to be selected on Nov 9 could not be announced owing to non-availability of the probables. According to chief selector, 15 players were present at the camp till Nov 11 and the number of probables increased to 27 later.

A PFF spokesman said the names of the players had been received from the chief selector and the squad along with the captain was likely to be announced on Friday after the approval of PFF president Faisal Saleh Hayat.

“We have decided to field 16 players out of 20 provided to us. And the number of players is for both home and away games,” Arshad said.