LAHORE, Dec 20: The Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) has short-listed coaches from Britain, Brazil, Czech Republic, Hungary and Iran.

This was stated by PFF President Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat at the press conference following the PFF Congress here at FIFA Football House on Saturday.

Faisal said that the federation’s main target is to complete a hat-trick at the SAF Games next year when Dhaka stages the 11th South Asian Games.

“We will develop a strong Pakistan Under-23 side to give us the third gold after triumphs in 2004 and 2006.

“The coach selected by us will not only look after the national team but also take care of the Dhaka-bound squad and Guangzhou’s 16th Asian Games 2010 team. The PFF will ink a three-year contract with the coach whose salary will be a minimum of $10,000 per month.”

The PFF chief assured the press of their total commitment to the implementation of the Vision Pakistan Project.

“Vision Asia is AFC’s grand plan for a continent-wide programme to raise the standards of Asian football at all levels, be it on the field of play, administration or sports science. The AFC has already recruited experts with specialist skills in 11 disciplines related with the programme. It will help us to move towards professionalism. The PFF will be more than 100 per cent involved in implementing Vision Pakistan,” added Faisal.

About the PFF’s annual budget, he said that it was lurking at around Rs40 million, clearly unrivalled with the Rs800 million plus annual budget of the All India Football Federation (AIFF).

“Yet we keep on producing sensational results as compared to our neighbours. We overwhelmed Kyrgyzstan, Chinese Taipei, Turkmenistan, Singapore, India, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Nepal and drew with Iraq, Iran, Oman and Bahrain in recent events. We bagged our fourth gold in SAF Games history in 2006, outpacing India’s three,” he pointed out.

Faisal pledged to continue his drive towards youth development and women’s soccer. It is also remarkable that the PFF has got four Goal Projects.

“The number will be raised to five soon as a project will be given to Islamabad too after Lahore, Peshawar, Karachi and Quetta. But there is still much needed to be done and it will be my endeavour to see that Pakistan football is recognised as the best, at least in Asia, one day. We need to set the highest benchmark possible in terms of professionalism,” said Faisal, who happens to be the 17th president in PFF’s 60-year history.

“On the instructions of the FIFA President Sepp Blatter,” he said: “The PFF would soon launch ‘Football for Peace’ in order to provide coaching and education to more than 2,000 youngsters every year in areas of unrest such as Fata, NWFP and Balochistan. The USA high commissions, Spain, Australia and Germany would cooperate with monetary assistance for this programme.”

Faisal has emphasised the need for PFF’s eight wings — provincial and regional — to become self-reliant in the area of the game’s development. “The national associations are based in a city and can’t really look after the entire country. We would like to strengthen the wings who will help the country’s ruling soccer body in the development process. The newly-appointed paid secretaries via PFF in each province have to go all out for the prosperity of football,” he concluded.—Agencies