KARACHI, June 8: The national football team’s dismal performance in the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship in Maldives, where Pakistan lost all three matches, has prompted the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) to sack the team’s coach Akhtar Mohiuddin.

This was disclosed to Dawn by PFF President Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayat in a telephonic conversation from Lahore on Sunday, hours before the team’s arrival in Karachi late Sunday night.

Commenting on the causes of defeat in Male, the PFF chief said: “It is the coach’s primary responsibility to look after the team’s needs during a match. He is the one who helps the players gel together and is supposed to remain on his toes for the entire 90-minute duration. If he notices a tired player, he should bring in a substitute while also constantly thinking up new strategies, which did not happen.

“Therefore, I have decided to relieve Akhtar Mohiuddin from his position as coach of the national side.”

The PFF president was also of the opinion that the players are not to be discouraged despite the ordinary performance.

“Many of them played very well in Male and we should encourage them,” he added.

Mohiuddin, who has been coaching the Pakistan side since April-May 2007, took over from foreign coach Salman Sharida of Bahrain after the latter quit rather abruptly with two years of his contact still remaining.

Pakistan had lost one match and won the other earlier this year in the two-match away series in Nepal in preparation for the AFC qualifiers in Chinese Taipei with Mohiuddin as the coach.

In Chinese Taipei, although the team had won two matches against the host side (2-1) and Guam (9-2), it lost its most important match against Sri Lanka 7-1, thus failing to qualify for the AFC event.

And now they lost all of their three Group ‘A’ matches in the SAFF Championship — 3-0 against Maldives, 2-1 against India and 4-1 against Nepal — to return home without a single win.

Meanwhile PFF’s general-secretary Lt Col Ahmed Yar Khan Lodhi told Dawn: “Mohiuddin had been informed before the team’s departure to Maldives that if he helped the side perform well there, the PFF would consider renewing his contract for another year. But the team’s dismal performance in Male has left us with no option but to look for a new coach.”

The PFF congress and executive committee meeting on June 21, among other things, would also be discussing finding a proper new coach for the national team as part of its agenda.

“Finding a replacement is the job of our operations department,” said Faisal. “The PFF needs more funding if they are to get another foreign coach of high standard for the team. A foreign coach, and I am not speaking about an excellent and highly recommended one, right now costs around $300,000 to $400,000, and PFF would need to generate more funds in order to find a foreign coach of good repute.”