By Shazia Hasan

The ongoing tussle between the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) and the Ministry of Sports over the latter's decision of not including a football team in the Asian contingent for the 16th Asian Games, to be held in Guangzhou, China, in November, has given the PFF some excuse for not being able to raise the standard of the game in the country.

“The performance of the Pakistan under-23 football team in the 15th Asian Games held in Doha, Qatar, in 2006 was praiseworthy,” PFF President Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat pointed out while appealing to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani through a letter last week. And he now wants the team to feature in the prestigious event again based on that.

Yes, the Pakistan football team showed some spark against Japan, Korea and Syria in the event held four years ago, but one must not overlook what happened after that. Former Bahraini footballer Salman Sharida, who was coaching the team then and was most influential in bringing about that spark, left soon after. Whatever performance the team put on during his less than two-year stint with them, they haven't been able to match to this day. Besides, the boys who played in that team are no longer included in the U-23 bracket. The current team that the PFF intended sending to the Asiad happens to be the one that failed miserably at the 11th South Asian Games in Dhaka in Jan-Feb this year.

The truth is that the PFF is still flying high over its team's meager achievements of four years ago while in reality, keeping the current scenario in view, it has only struggled to rise above mediocrity instead of focusing on playing the game professionally and skillfully.

Someone needs to remind the PFF President about looking at the team's recent performance rather than boasting about the past or plan too far in the future (as he did while hoping to see them participate in the 2022 FIFA World Cup) and miss the forest for the trees.

Whether it was busy spending all its energies in covering up its incompetence or is simply a victim of spreading itself too thin, the federation in these recent years has lost much ground gained in football by the well wishers of the sport during the past several years.

The current situation is so bad that even an expensive EEFA-pro coach, George Kottan of Austria, failed to do the needful for the national team. Without getting into the details of whether the coach took the PFF for a ride or vice versa, the team under his supervision couldn't even defend its South Asian Games title despite being on a hat-trick (winner of ninth and 10th editions) this year.

Instead of crying over not being included in Pakistan's contingent for the Asian Games, the PFF chief should be more worried about who is to coach his team and, more importantly, who will be leading it?

Curtailing the number of games to be played at the national level has left few players in form. What does he intend doing about that? Why is the country's highest goal-scorer and former national team's most successful captain Mohammad Essa still not being approached to take back his emotional decision to retire during the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) championship last year? Why doesn't the PFF still own a football ground? What are the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Aid-27 coaches doing other than holding annual summer camps for young soccer enthusiasts? What's happening with the FIFA Goal Project-II?

With not even a proper infrastructure, it is easy for the PFF to remember meagre past glories or make tall claims for the distant future. The recent decision taken by the Ministry of Sports may be harsh but it is the team's recent performance at other international events that prompted them to ignore football.

Still the PFF should not be allowed to use this excuse to hide its poor performance. The ministry, therefore, needs to rethink its decision. Sending out teams that have better chances of winning medals doesn't really justify missing a chance of getting some international exposure.

The national cricket team's complete collapse in Australia in Jan-Feb and the hockey World Cup debacle in Feb-March was like a blessing for the PFF as it took away the nation's attention from the football team's lousy performance. But they should be brought back in the news. If nothing else, then to just compel their top brass to sit up and take notice of the falling standards rather than play the blame game.

As of now, they are leaving no stone unturned in laying the blame on the Ministry of Sports for preventing the team from getting international exposure. And they will continue to do so till 2022, most probably, when contrary to their expectations the team fails to make it to the World Cup!