The chairman of District West Referees Association (Karachi West), Chaudhry Muhammad Israr lambasted the failure of Sindh referees in the recently held FIFA Referees Fitness Test in Lahore. He regarded the failure as fault of Sindh Football Referees Association (SFRA) secretary Qamar Yar for showing nepotism in sending old personal favourite referees Abdul Aziz and Arsalan Sharif. Ch. Israr stated that both SFRA nominees had been repeatedly sent for the important FIFA Referees Test each time, only to fail at every attempt and tarnish the image of Sindh referees.
Ch Israr stated that SFRA has been ignoring many promising and fit young referees because of this unsportsman like decisions that stem from political and personal benefit rather than actually helping the game. He also said that both Abdul Aziz and Arsalan Sharif (both aged 42) have been players for Qamar Yar’s very own football club for a long time and have yet to properly ever officiate a football match in District East Karachi.
Ch Israr also said that his own District West referees have always been given duty to officiate national level matches in Karachi for the Pakistan Premier League, PFF League, and local tournaments but they have never been recognised by SFRA officials because of vested interests and have never been sent to PFF and SFA referee training courses and tests. Ch Israr stated that District East referees get a lot of chances because of politics in SFRA, only for them to disappoint and humiliate the name of referees for whole of Karachi and Sindh.
As a result, the District West referees chairman has requested the PFF, Sindh FA, and senior provincial and national referee officials to take strong notice of Qamar Yar’s conduct as SFRA secretary and take action over SFRA’s discrimination and nepotism
