Nogueira wins case against PFF

KARACHI: Former Pakistan football coach Jose Nogueira of Brazil has won the legal battle against Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) regarding his unpaid wages.

However, PFF Normalisation Committee chairman Humza Khan has said that they would go for appeal. “Yes, we will go for appeal,” Humza told ‘The News’ on Wednesday.

Humza claimed that Nogueira’s contract had been dissolved at the end of December 2019.

The Brazilian filed a claim with the FIFA’s Players’ Status Committee in January this year after PFF did not pay his salaries and other benefits.

Nogueira’s lawyer Dr Alexandre Miranda told ‘The News’ from Brazil that Nogueira had won the case. “We received the decision on August 14. Nogueira, the head coach, won the case,” Alexandre said.

“Nogueira was hired by PFF in April 2018. He performed his duty and received his salary properly till June 2019. But as of July 2019 PFF simply stopped paying his wages and his benefits,” Alexandre said. “He served several communications to the PFF in order to ask why PFF simply stopped him paying. The PFF did not answer. He tried to solve the matter in amicable way. There was no other alternative but in January 2020 he filed a claim before FIFA’s Players Status Committee and since January the claim was processed and finally on August 14 we received such decision,” he said.

“And now PFF must pay, otherwise, the case will be submitted with the FIFA disciplinary committee for disciplinary action. We are waiting to receive the payment,” the lawyer said.

Alexandre said that the contract was not terminated. “PFF simply stopped paying wages and after a while hired a new coach in the end of December 2019. This was absurd,” he said.

When asked what actual amount the PFF will have to pay to Nogueira, Alexandre said he could not tell about that due to confidentiality.

A FIFA spokesperson confirmed the decision. “In relation to this matter, we can confirm that a decision was rendered on 11 August 2020 by the Single Judge of the Players’ Status Committee, notified to the parties on 14 August 2020. However, as the case is not yet final and binding, we are not in a position to comment further,” the FIFA spokesperson told ‘The News’.

Nogueira had been hired by the PFF in the era of former president Faisal Saleh Hayat for three years. His last assignment was the World Cup qualifiers against Cambodia in June 2019.