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KARACHI: It’s going to be some multinational debut for Maria Khan at the SAFF Women’s Championship coming month. In her veritably first game putting on Pakistan colours, she'll also be wearing the captain’s armband.
Maria was named captain of Pakistan’s first women’s football team nearly eight times when the Pakistan Football Federation Normalisation Committee declared its 23- member team for the local match in Nepal on Friday.
The tournament kicks off on Sept 6 and Maria’s multinational inflexion is set to come against India the following day after FIFA on Friday lifted the suspense on the All India Football Federation.
still, Maria isn't allowed to express what it means to her just yet. The PFF NC has supposedly issued a strict monkeyshine order on the players and Maria didn’t expose how she felt at being handed the responsibility of leading the squad when asked for comment by us
“ As of right now I ’m in competition mode and would politely postpone you to the coaching staff for any immediate feedback, ” she said in a written message.
The PFF spokesman told Progressive Researchers that the NC had a “ policy in place on the coaches ’ recommendation to help players from speaking to media manpower ”.
“ Still, for an immediate interview or quote, the NC can be reached, ” the spokesperson added.
NC member Shahid Khokhar, who used to handle the media matters preliminarily, told Dawn that “ the players, especially the captain, would be made available soon and they had been kept down from the media to help them concentrate on their football ”.
There was no response from Khokhar on how commerce with the media shifts players ’ concentration down from the game. In the news release transferred by Khokhar publicizing the team, there was also no response from Maria.
In what seems to be fogy to the policy that was current during the time of the former PFF setup where interview requests were routinely denied and players were sanctioned for speaking to the media, the moment was lost for UAE- grounded Maria to express her trip to getting into the team and eventually being named captain.
Maria went from being a goalkeeper in the United States to a midfielder in the United Arab Emirates while also representing Wapda in the National Championships in 2018 and 2019 with her performances bringing her into the national reckoning.
But Pakistan football has been beset with institutional extremity in the PFF and forced FIFA to install a Normalisation Committee to settle the affairs of the federation.
It has impacted women’s football most with the public team having last played in 2014. Only seven players from that team remain on the current side, including vice-captain Malika-e-Noor and former captain and star striker Hajra Khan.
The SAFF Women’s Championship will end that long failure and the PFF NC has also roped in UK- grounded midfielder Nadia Khan.
Nadia, who plays for Doncaster Rovers Belles, is due to join the team in Nepal.
The NC had before appointed Adeel Rizki as the head trainer for the squad and he on with his mate Walid Javed Khan had been holding a training camp for the team since the first week of August in Lahore. They had held trials preliminarily to shortlist 35 players for the camp.
Like Maria, Adeel too hasn’t been made available to the media and his release as head trainer only came through a post on social media.
The PFF NC has also not explained why Adeel, who holds a UEFA ‘ B ’ license but has noway counselled a team in either the men’s Pakistan Premier Football League or the National Women’s Championship, was appointed.
The only logic the PFF NC has given is that it's making a “ coaching panel and officials from it'll be picked and appointed for national team assignments ”.
Squad Alina Ispahani, Anmol Hira, Atiqa Nasir, Ghazala Amir, Hajra Khan, Khadija Kazmi, Maliha Nasir, Malika-e-Noor(vice-captain), Maria Khan( captain), Marvi Baig, Mishal Bhatti, Nadia Khan, Nisha Ashraf, Nizalia Siddiqui, Rameen Fareed, Roshan Ali, Sahar Zaman, Sara Khan, Shani Shahida, Shanzay Nazir, Suha Hirani, Syeda Mahara and Zulfia Nazir.
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