PSB in a fix over sending pending salary to Aikman

ISLAMABAD: An official of the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) has signed a cheque worth Rs7.9 million to be paid to the national team head coach Siegfried Aikman, who has left for Holland following an agonizing wait to receive his pending dues of nine months.

A well-placed source in the PSB has told ‘The News’ that the cheque is ready to be delivered. However, the hurdle is that the government has already de-notified the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) and handing over the cheque to the denotified federation would be against the rule.

“Siegfried’s salary cheque is ready to be paid but the hurdle here is how to deliver the amount to the coach. We can only deposit the cheque in the PHF accounts as we have to monitor and audit the payments the government doles out to each federation. Since the PSB has den-notified the hockey federation, the communication with the federation and that too in the shape of grants or other amounts cannot be made,” the official said.

When asked why the PSB has recently paid Rs7 million to the federation to purchase tickets for the South Africa-bound team, he said that the amount was paid in lieu of ticket purchase.

“Since the federation was in a fix and finding it hard to arrange a team traveling to South Africa, we helped out the players to travel to South Africa to figure in the Nations Cup.

But here in case of Aikman, the contract has been with the federation and as such there is requirement to submit the amount in the PHF’s kitty for payment to the coach. However, at this point of time when we are not recognizing the federation, making such payment is not possible,” the official said.

The official was also concerned about the poor performance of the squad Pakistan in the Nations Cup that saw the Greenshirts finishing seventh in competition.

“The downfall in hockey over the years still continues. There is no justification in such a bad performance as the Nation Cup was participated by low-ranked teams as top ten teams were missing. A victory in the tournament could have been seen as a ray of hope for hockey’s future.”

In a recent talk to ‘The News’, Siegfried said that he was facing serious financial crisis in wake of salary’s non-payment.