Under-19 team being ignored: Nasir

LAHORE: Pakistan football team former assistant coach Nasir Ismail on Monday said that the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) Normalisation Committee has taken the country’s under-19 team very lightly which is a big blunder.

“Look, it is the under-19 team which feeds players to your national under-23 team and the senior team. NC’s chairman Haroon Malik has kept under-16 team engaged in training for the last three months to prepare for the under-16 SAFF Cup while he has just announced trials for the under-19 team which will feature in the Under-19 SAFF Cup next month. This is a huge negligence on Haroon’s part. He does not know which lot should be given priority,” Nasir said.

“NC’s entire focus is on the women football team and the under-19 men’s team is being sent to feature in the SAFF Cup just to avert penalty as entry has already been confirmed. Look, the 2019 Under-19 lot which we had prepared produced players who are currently representing both under-23 and the senior team. It’s an important lot and the authorities should have given it more weightage than the under-16 team,” Nasir said.

He wondered how trials of under-19 team are being held without the head coach. “Where is the head coach? If there is no head coach then Mohsin-ul-Hasnain should have been made head coach. It’s ridiculous,” he said.

He said blatant violations of the AFC Rules are being made, especially in the women’s side as far as coaching is concerned.

“Women’s team coach Adeel Rizki has made all his Karachi City Club players international during his coaching,” Nasir pointed out.