ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Football Federation is working out a plan to hire a Brazilian coach for the national squad besides engaging club level C-division Brazilian players for domestic football league, Dawn has learnt reliably.
An unnamed sports ministry official told Dawn that the senior management of the country’s football federation was communicating with the Brazilian Embassy officials based in Islamabad for hiring a football coach on a minimum two-year contract.
“The PFF officials are discussing the issue with Brazilian officials and some positive development is expected,” said the official.
Pakistan is yet to mark its name on the international football arena mainly because of lack of proper funding from the central government besides limited marketing and sponsorship support from the national and multinational companies.
“The federation is also looking to hire few Brazilian players for its domestic league season and they will be part of departments, cities or clubs but it all depend on the PFF,” he maintained.
Asked about the funding of the coach’s fee, he said: “The PFF officials would definitely make a better comment over it, however, as per our knowledge, the funding will mainly be managed through sponsors.”
Meanwhile, a federation official close to the development said that PFF president Faisal Saleh Hayat had held a brief chat with the Brazilian ambassador, Alfredo Leoni, at one of the diplomatic receptions recently held at Islamabad.
“During the brief chat with the Brazilian ambassador the matter related to football was discussed,” he said.
The source said the recent training tour of the Pakistani coach to Brazil was also a positive step for development of the game in this part of the world where cricket is the most followed game.
“With likely selection of a Brazilian coach, the Pakistan team will benefit from it,” the source insisted.