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Interesting
time for London clubs Why
Pakistan needs a sports tribunal Huge setback Interesting time for London clubs By
Zain Qureshi O f the 20
teams participating in this season’s English Premier League, five are
based in London — Chelsea have a squad with strength and depth, albeit it will take all the skills possessed by their newly appointed manager to make this a title winning side. One of the key signings this season will be Juan Mata, who will undoubtedly take some of the burden off of Malouda’s shoulders on the left wing, a position the Spaniard excelled in for Valencia, and may even occasionally be used to relieve Lampard of the duties of pushing into the penalty area from deep in midfield, such is Mata’s versatility. With Lampard on the wrong side of 30s, the Englishman’s ability to play as a box to box midfielder will diminish as the season wears on, and here, it will take a combination of Mikel, Mata and Ramires to take over from his defensive duties and pitch in with the occasional goal. Mata’s goal average of approximately one every three games will especially come in handy to that end, as he showed in his first game in a blue shirt. Signing Meireles, a player familiar to the new manager, shows the importance placed by the manager on a midfielder who can make those box to box runs. Chelsea’s neighbours down the road at Craven Cottage, Fulham, tend to attract less attention than their more accomplished and ambitious neighbours. Fulham are a perennial showing in the middle of the Premier League table come season’s end, and added to this two years ago with a remarkable run to the finals of the Europa League, only to lose to Atletico Madrid. This season, there is a new manager in charge, with Martin Jol returning to the Premier League, where he had earlier been manager at Tottenham. The Dutchman did not have the best of times during his North London years, and will feel he has something to prove yet. The bulk of transfer activity for Fulham has involved players leaving, while the major signing is John Arne Riise, the Norwegian who plied his trade at Liverpool before a stint in Italy with Roma. He will add some bite to their midfield with his ability to take shots from long distance, and his delivery from set pieces. Given that the core of the squad has remained largely unchanged from previous campaigns, Fulham can expect a decent finish this year as well. Queens Park Rangers are the new boys in the Premier League, and after a reality check meted out by Bolton as a harsh welcome to the top flight, will be glad to have got a first win under their belt. Although QPR followed their win against Everton with a loss to lower league side Rochdale in the Carling Cup, manager Neil Warnock seems unaffected, and rightly so. The Carling Cup diminishes in importance the further one moves up the hierarchy of English football. Indeed, for a club that has just been promoted to the Premier League and whose squad will take some time to get used to the rigours of Premiership football, the Carling Cup could well prove a distraction, and a tiring one at that. I, for one, am curious to see how Adel Taraabt, the club’s talismanic captain, who spearheaded QPR’s run to promotion last year, adapts to the Premier League. He will certainly not be afforded the luxury of long mazy runs around midfield with the ball at his feet. Whether the attacking midfielder will wilt or flourish, may well determine the outcome of QPR’s season. On to North London now, and Tottenham, who have endured a poor start to the season, both on and off the pitch. Repeated approaches from Chelsea for key playmaker Luka Modric turned the midfielder’s head so much that he has had a falling out with the club chairman over Tottenham’s refusal to let go of him. There is clearly a rift between the two men, as Modric’s state of mind was not deemed fit enough for him to take part in the match against Manchester United, where an orchestrator in midfield was sorely missed as United ran around Tottenham, particularly in the second half. He did not fare well against Manchester City either. The decision to hold on to Modric so doggedly may be born of the fact that the club have not managed to find any replacement for him, with other clubs picking up transfer targets before Tottenham. The only decent signing appears to be goalkeeper Brad Friedel, who brings with him decades of experience and class between the sticks, and will surely replace Gomes as the first choice keeper. Adebayor’s signing on loan is a clear sign of the lack of faith in the incumbent stock of strikers, and one wonders where the assists will come from if Modric remains unsettled. The match against Manchester City proved how crucial he is to their success, and current lack of it. Lastly, there is Arsenal, about whom much has been said, in this column and elsewhere. Nasri’s inevitable departure has come about, and now the club find themselves without their two key playmakers, and with the main emerging talent, Wilshere, injured. A shining light so far has been the young keeper Szczesny, who appears to be coming good at an early age. Walcott remains useful only when running at or behind opposition defenders, and that too diagonally. When it comes to running down the channel and delivering a telling pass, he is not your man. Fortunately, that is not a system Arsenal are likely to use any time soon, lacking as they are in the aerial strength department in the opposition box. This season will be a difficult one for Arsenal, given how two very ‘not Arsenal’ type of players have been recruited in Arteta and Benayoun, to replace Fabregas in the middle and Nasri on the wing respectively. The Frenchman must be smarting at the way his program of using young players is facing such difficulties, epitomised in stagnation against a negative minded Liverpool side, while Manchester United’s starlets so adeptly destroyed Tottenham and later Arsenal themselves. zainhq@gmail.com caption Samir Nasri
Why Pakistan needs a sports tribunal By
Umair A. Qazi In the recent
events that have plagued Pakistan cricket, one of the main issues has
been those of Legally speaking, if there can be banking tribunals, tax tribunals, accountability courts, labour courts etc then why can there not be a sports tribunal. Surely this doesn’t mean that the tribunal would only be meant to cover cricket related queries but for sports in general which would eliminate all doubts of bias which currently exists in boards and departments. In Pakistan the age old practice of forming internal committees’ needs to be done away as quite clearly players and officials are always subjected to fines and penalties without being heard by a proper forum or at least a competent court. The PCB integrity committee comprises of a retired Supreme Court judge and other PCB officials which does not give the retired justice a majority standing and hence even though his presence is considered to be tantamount to the decision of the committee it merely is an eye wash. Recently the same committee suddenly cleared former captain Shoaib Malik and before we knew it he was back in the Pakistan team and on his way to Zimbabwe. Perhaps one ought to
doubt the committee and its mysterious ways, it is no hidden fact that
the In the light of the newly inserted Article 10-A of the Constitution which provides for a right to fair trial and due process, the government ought to consider the creation of a sports tribunal dealing with all kinds of sports across the country. Instead of Departments of boards dealing with players through committees, perhaps a tribunal comprising of expert(s) from every sport plus a judge competent enough to sit in the High Court in order to deal with the legality of the crimes committed can be constituted. This would then set a precedent and allow players to be cautious in the future, specially the youth who can easily get carried away due to their lack of exposure. It would also ensure a fair and impartial trial with the decision of the tribunal appeal able at the High Court level. The most positive impact it would have on players, athletes etc would be that of putting the onus on them to be a strict professional in terms of avoiding drugs and other substances which could then lead to their bans or heavy penalties which would in turn save the country a lot of humiliation abroad. There is no cavil in the thought that the committees and boards governing player conduct and rules etc are biased, impartial and to an extent easily influenced. One can only hope and pray that some sense prevails and committees like those that are also formed by the government every time a suicide bomber attacks or an unfortunate event takes place, sports is not subjected to the same. umairkazi@gmail.com
By
Alam Zeb Safi It was really unfortunate that the much awaited Indo-Pak football series was postponed at a time when both the teams were preparing to leave for London late last month. The arch-rivals were
scheduled to face each other in the two-match series on September 3 in
Derby and On the issue, ‘The News on Sunday’ interviewed the main figure behind the whole project, Director Marketing and Event Management of the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) Naveed Haider and he will tell you how the series was shaped and what led to its postponement. The News on Sunday: When and how did you conceive an idea to organise an Indo-Pak football series in England and how did you convince India before taking the step? Naveed Haider: It was in 2010 when I met Clem Leech and Ahmar Kunwar from UK-based TouchSky Sports. They had brought into Pakistan Graham Roberts on a coaching assignment for the PFF last year. This was a fully sponsored activity. During our meetings, they showed their desire to organise a three-match football series between Pakistan and India in the United Kingdom and Dubai. I spoke to my old friend Sunando, who is now the CEO of Indian Football League. He appreciated the thought and asked me to send a proposal to AIFF. TNS: Touch Sky Sports
(TSS) was your first choice for the scheme or did you contact any other
company at NH: Well, they are the FIFA approved player and match agents. It means that they have the license to organise friendly matches between any two countries or clubs anywhere in the world which is why we went along with them to organise the series. TNS: Under which conditions you did make a deal with the TSS? NH: I cannot disclose the terms of the contract. TSS confirmed to sponsors all the expenses related to the event and agreed to pay appearance money, air-tickets, full boarding and lodging for both the teams. In return, they got the live telecast, series holding, marketing and promotion rights from both the federations. TNS: Had you taken India into confidence when the series was initially planned before World Cup qualifiers? NH: We were in touch with them and TouchSky Sports were making all the plans and they kept us informed about all the schedules and arrangements and assured us that they would hold the series in a professional manner. TNS: Why did the series remain under cloud of uncertainty throughout the whole process and who was responsible for all the mess? NH: I think TSS messed it up from the start. They miscalculated the commercial value of the project. Initially, they came up with unattainable sponsorship packages. When they sent me their proposal, I rejected it and advised them to make a more realistic proposal which could be easy to market in UK, Pakistan and India. They ignored my advice and tried to sell the three-match package without any success. Then they reduced the amounts and made a fresh package but it simply confused the prospective sponsors who lost confidence in their ability and credibility. Then they came up to change the dates from June/July to August/September. We agreed with the changes because both the teams were busy in their World Cup qualifiers. The agreed dates and venues were August 28, at Bury FC Manchester, September 3 at Coventry FC and September 11 at Westham United FC, London. Again after a few days they shifted the second match from Coventry to Derby FC. These changes never went down well with us but TSS always provided valid reasons to justify their work. Then the riots started in Britain and they came up with the suggestion to hold one match in Derby FC only. The PFF objected to it because this was not as per agreement. So we categorically told them that the PFF is ready to send our team to play one match with India only if we played at least two more matches with the local clubs. In the meantime, I requested AIFF to at least play two matches which they agreed. So the final programme came. Pakistan were scheduled to play a friendly match on September 1 against Birmingham FC which was changed to August 29. The first clash against India was scheduled for September 3 in Derby, followed by the second and last one in Glasgow on September 9. Again the English FA came up with the idea to have an exhibition futsal match against India on August 29, followed by an inter-community session and a seminar to promote Asians into football. We agreed with this proposal which was being organised by English FA and they launched a massive promotional programme. But the sponsorship position and ticket sales did not show any encouraging response. TSS came up with an idea to dedicate the match on September 3 in memory of the three young men of the Pakistani origin, who unfortunately lost their lives during the riots in Birmingham. This was a decision taken solely by TSS perhaps to gain the sympathies of the community and in desperate need to get people buy the tickets. Because they announced that all the proceeds of the match will be donated to a trust which will be established in the honour of the victims. The families refused to be a part of this and declined to attend any activity before 40 days mourning period. This was the last trick in their bag which failed so they were left with no choice but to postpone the series under this plea. They never bothered to take our opinion on any of this and did not even have the courtesy of writing/requesting PFF and AIFF for a further postponement. My final thought is that TSS failed on all fronts and missed out a great opportunity to showcase such a great event professionally. TNS: Was the postponement of the series by the organisers at the eleventh hour disappointing? NH: We are not disappointed or angry but we are very upset. We are already in touch with AIFF and we plan to report them to FIFA. We received the initial deposits from TSS plus the air tickets but we are going to demand the full appearance money and all costs and losses from them. TNS: Don’t you think that you should have been in England during the crucial days which could have given you an opportunity to keep an eagle eye on what the organisers were doing? NH: It should have been other way around. Their team should have been working in Pakistan and India marketing this event through a professional company. They would have easily generated a lot of funds from sponsorships, branding rights and live telecast. TNS: Would you file a complaint with FIFA against the TSS or any legal action against them is in line? NH: Yes a formal complaint will be launched with FIFA. As far as legal matters are concerned, they have to be decided by the presidents of both federations in consultation with their executive committees. TNS: As the TSS says that the series would be rescheduled sometimes later this year. In your opinion is it possible for them now? NH: No more deals with them. TNS: If the series is not held in England any more, would you plan to hold it in any other neutral venue? NH: Let’s wait and see. Definitely the ideal situation would be to hold home and away series with India. TNS: Denmark-based Yousuf Butt and Mohammad Ali have purchased their own tickets. Would you help them refund these through the TSS? NH: We will refund their tickets, so no worries on that front. We know how to take care of our boys and we will be there for them always. 73.alam@gmail.com
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Chelsea, Fulham, Queens Park Rangers, Arsenal and Tottenham.
key players entangling themselves in legal battles with the Pakistan
Cricket Board (PCB). As a practicing litigating lawyer I have been
closely following the constitutional petition filed by Danish Kaneria in
the Sindh High Court through his able and competent lawyer Dr Farough
Nasim in order to seek clearance from the integrity committee and make
him available for selection with the PCB. However, since little has been
achieved thus far in spite of all kinds of documents and evidences
available, one does beg to ask, does sports in Pakistan in general needs
a sports tribunal?
same committee had asked Malik to explain his bank accounts many months
ago which he allegedly explained to the board prior to the World Cup but
only in vain. However, the same committee now finds nothing wrong in his
explanation and in a matter of minutes he was cleared to play whereas
Kaneria who has been cleared by the Essex Police regarding his
involvement in spot-fixing is to date harassed by the PCB for no rhyme
or reason. What concerns me more is that even if the court was to order
the committee to consider Kaneria for selection, the committee firstly
is not bound to follow the courts order per se since they have their own
mechanisms. Secondly and more importantly, even if the integrity
committee is to clear Kaneria and directs the selection committee to
select him if they deem fit, the fact that Kaneria approached the High
Court in order to get justice might not go down too well with this PCB
which may not select him in any event. One such recent example is that
of Shahid Afridi who in spite of having approached the court was
subjected to pay a hefty fine of Rs45 lacs plus legal fees. Surely this
merits an independent and impartial hearing and a career cannot be left
to the mercy of an internal integrity committee.
September 9 in Glasgow. The decision to postpone the series was taken
solely by the organisers without taking the participating countries into
confidence which shows an utter failure on their part. Although the
decision did hurt the emotions and aspirations of the players and
officials on both sides of the border but at least it did not come as a
financial blow for the federations of the participating nations. The
organisers — TouchSky Sports — suffered the most in the whole
process as they faced not only financial losses but also lost their
credibility.
that time?