Former coach Nogueira laments state of football in Pakistan

KARACHI: Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) Normalisation Committee’s wrong handling of the contract matter of the former Pakistan Brazilian football coach Jose Nogueira has incurred a huge damage on the PFF’s exchequer.

Sources close to Nogueira told ‘The News’ that FIFA will cover all his dues on behalf of the PFF as Pakistan is serving suspension.

Meanwhile Nogueira confirmed it to ‘The News’ from Brazil, saying he has now no issue with the PFF as his matter has been resolved by FIFA.

“I am very happy with the final decision from FIFA,” Nogueira told ‘The News’ without disclosing how much amount, in the shape of outstanding dues and penalties, he will receive from FIFA.

“The case I won at the first stage in the ‘Players Status Committee’ in FIFA. The PFF NC under Humza Khan then filed an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS). And there too I won the case. After that they did not pay too because of the problems back home and now FIFA have resolved my issue. I have no more problem with the PFF as FIFA covered all problems at the moment,” Nogueira said.

“Ofcourse I am happy that I won the case but I am sad with the football situation in Pakistan. There are all time problems between groups who want to control the PFF and forget football. When I was head coach of Pakistan, we had started very good work for football, players and the national team. We were in a good way but unfortunately football was destroyed. Had our venture continued and our progress remained unhalted then Pakistan would have been in a position to impress at the qualifying stages for the World Cup,” Nogueira added.

Nogueira had been hired by the PFF on April 25, 2018 for three years. His last assignment was the World Cup qualifiers against Cambodia in June 2019. He performed his duty and received his salary properly till June 2019.

According to sources he used to get quarterly salary so he was about to get his next salary by the end of September, 2019. However, in the same month FIFA installed a Normalisation Committee. And handling his payment was now NC’s responsibility. But NC neither kept paying him, nor terminated his contract. Had his contract been terminated at that time by the PFF NC under Humza Khan it would have to pay him for five months as the contract could have been dissolved on two months’ advance notice. But now he would get from FIFA dues for around two years besides penalties, sources said.

He used to get an 8000 US dollars salary.

In January 2020 Nogueira filed a claim before FIFA’s Players Status Committee. And finally on August 14 the decision was given in favour of Nogueira by the single bench of the committee.

NC then went to CAS and there too NC failed to defend itself. After winning cases at two points Nogueira was not paid and eventually the PFF faced suspension.

Sources said that Nogueira wrote to FIFA that there was no fault of him if the PFF remains suspended for one more year, what he will do and so FIFA’s disciplinary committee decided that the world body will clear all his dues on behalf of the PFF.

Without terminating his contract, NC had brought in Tariq Lutfi as a head coach at the end of December 2019.

Had some settlement been reached at that point Pakistan could have avoided such a huge amount and penalties. The PFF would also have spent a huge amount on lawyers by taking the matter to CAS after losing it at the Players Status Committee.