Players’ association: Coaches hampering formation, says Adil [Express Tribune]

KARACHI: With the Pakistan Football Federation divided internally with two factions claiming the right to govern football in the country, since last year, all football-related activities have come to a halt with even the domestic league being cancelled.

In such a grave environment, the players have taken upon themselves to counter the situation and have been pursuing the idea of forming a players’ association to voice their concerns.

The idea, while well received by all stakeholders, has been facing some hurdles recently with Pakistan’s top midfielder and the first player to ever get signed by a foreign club, Muhammad Adil, revealing that lack of support from the coaches at departmental level is seriously hampering its process.

“The situation in Pakistan is not good at all but we are hoping for the best,” Adil told The Express Tribune. “The idea for a player’s association is a work in progress and we, the players, are heavily in favour of it. Though, we are able to differentiate between right and wrong, there are some coaches who are scared of a potential backlash from either one of the groups in the future and are, thereby, hampering the process.”

He added that not only are those coaches unwilling to aid in the association’s formation, they are advising young players against such a move.

“I can tell that the players want to join in but they are not getting a positive feedback from their departmental coaches, so they are hesitating because of that,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 25^th, 2016.