LAHORE, July 16: After short listing a number of foreign coaches on the advice of its special committee, the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) is in negotiation with a Romanian coach for the senior team.

Secretary Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) Col. (retd.) Ahmad Yar Lodhi told Dawn on Wednesday that the special committee of the PFF, headed by senior vice president Zahir Ali Shah, has recommended three foreign coaches with the Romanian Molaovan Eugen as its first choice.

The other two choices are Salman Sharida from Bahrain, who had already coached Pakistan for almost 15 months ending in Dec, 2006 and Jan Poulsel from Denmark.

“The Romanian coach became the committee’s first choice because of his age. He is 47 years old whereas the Danish coach is 62. Furthermore, the Romanian has several notable achievements to his credit. Besides coaching the top Saudi Arabian club Al-Nasr, he has also coached Bolivia’s national team,” the secretary said. Bolivia is currently ranked at 71 in FIFA rankings.

“Though Sharida has delivered as coach of the national team, Eugen is a high ranking coach and the team is in need of a high profile coach in order to improve its game,” he said.

“Sharida did a wonderful job here as our national team gave significant performances against top Asian teams in the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, but now there is a need for a more skilful coach who can further improve the side,” he opined.

The secretary said there was not that much of a difference between Sharida and Eugen’s remuneration.

“Eugen will cost us about US$110,000 annually while Sharida was demanding US$7,000 per month as a salary,” he said.

The secretary said that first they had to get through the debate of whether Pakistan even needed a foreign coach.

“There was a hot debate going on over the issue as some members of the PFF Congress were of the view that the local coaches could also deliver. But at last there was a unanimous decision to hire foreign coaches,” he said.

He said in order to meet the expenditures of hiring a foreign coach, the PFF had to take various measures to cut down its unnecessary activities, besides putting the expenditures of some national team tours on the Pakistan Sports Board.

“The PFF will now concentrate more on its senior and Under-21 squads. The foreign coach will also train our local coaches, who may later be appointed to coach other teams,” he said.

Pakistan’s current decline in FIFA rankings from 161 (in June) to 169 (in July) has also compelled the PFF to concentrate more on the senior team, since its performance is vital to bring Pakistan up in rankings.

“The PFF has been struggling to improve women’s football, as well as game of the Under-17 and Under-13 players to have enough back-up for the national team, but now we will move through a comprehensive plan giving more priority to the senior team,” he said.

“If all the details with Eugen are settled, the PFF’s prime target would be to win next year’s South Asian Games in Dhaka, Bangladesh, to complete a hat- trick,” he said.

He said the special committee had also suggested restructuring the operation branch and the recent removal of deputy-director Muslim Butt was part of it.

When pointed out that Muslim Butt was only one qualified person in the PFF having a ‘B’ Licence, he said that the former deputy director would be used for other purposes within the PFF since he was more of a misfit for the said post.