Nasir lambasts PFF for ‘depriving’ him of salary

KARACHI: Former Pakistan team assistant coach Nasir Ismail on Tuesday revealed how Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) “deprived” him of one year salary which he had the right to get in 2012 for his services as AID-27 coach.

“In January-February 2013 the PFF told me that there was an audit objection and I should give it a blank cheque duly signed by me so that the amount which the AFC used to send in my name could be transferred to the PFF account. I was assured that the amount would then be given to me sometime later. It was a sort of commitment between me and the PFF,” Nasir told ‘The News’ after a news conference here.

“Then I was in Abbottabad in connection with a championship when I received a call from Habib Bank Limited (HBL) Azizabad Branch, Karachi. They told me that they had received my cheque for clearance. I told them that they could clear it,” said Nasir, also a License A coach.

He made it clear that his salary was 1500 dollars per month and the AFC used to send it through cheques of 4500 dollars on quarterly basis. “It means that the PFF would have to give me 18,000 dollars for my services as a coach during the 2012,” Nasir said.

“The signature on the affidavit which the PFF usually shows to the people is not mine. The PFF wants to make an impression that I have agreed by signing the affidavit that I have donated the said amount to the PFF for the promotion of Pakistan football. It is totally wrong and I have not signed any such affidavit,” Nasir added.

“The PFF used to send the same bogus affidavit to the AFC and get money in the name of coaches,” he said.

A document of the HBL New Garden Town, Lahore, shows that Rs1,635,291 had been transferred from the PFF account to the account of Nasir Ismail on June 14, 2013.

Nasir said that after a couple of days of this transaction the amount had been transferred from his account to the PFF.

Nasir said his fellow coaches Sajjad Mehmood, Shehzad Anwar, Kiran Ilyas and Shaista Leghari had been treated the same way.

He appealed to the FIFA and AFC ethic committees to provide him justice and punish those who deprived him of his salary.

Nasir said his fellow coach Gohar Zaman had refused to allow the PFF to get his salary. “When Gohar did not allow the PFF to use his salary for other purposes, he was told that he would not be given any kind of coaching assignment in future. And he has been kept away from coaching since 2012,” Nasir said.

Gohar was also present at the news conference.

Nasir said the PFF did not invest a single penny on coaches. “I did my license A coaching course in 2008 by spending money from my own pocket. Our coaches went to Bahrain for License A course by meeting their own expenses. Goalkeeping coaches also did their course in Bahrain by spending from their own resources,” he said.

“The PFF only nominates the coaches for such courses,” Nasir added.

“In the rules of financial policy of the PFF when a coach attends a seminar abroad it is his right to get 60 dollars as daily allowance. But the PFF never gave us any allowance which it receives from the AFC for the purpose,” Nasir disclosed.

“They don’t give coaches any benefit but they themselves claim such facilities whenever they go abroad,” Nasir said.