KARACHI, July 27: In a face-saving effort, the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) on Friday decided to hold trials of British-born Pakistani soccer players for the national side under UK-based coaches after a local coach didn’t get the UK visa owing to PFF’s slackness.

While the PFF chief Faisal Saleh Hayat said two-day trials to select UK-based Pakistani players would be held on Sunday and Monday, he didn’t specifically say why PFF changed the programme.

However, it is obvious that after blundering while applying for the UK visa for local coach Akhtar Mohiuddin from British High Commission, the PFF has no option but to hold trials under a new arrangement.

Akhtar, a former national coach, was assigned to travel to UK and select players on Friday and Saturday but missed the trip as the PFF didn’t submit evidence of financial circumstances and legitimate business interest in the UK along with visa application.

Since hype has already been created about the trials and British soccer players of the Pakistani origin are anxiously looking forward to appearing in them, the PFF has decided to go-ahead with the programme.

"The trials to select budding football players of Pakistan origin will be held on July 29 and 30 at South Yorkshire. We are taking seriously the next year's 11th South Asian Games where our Under-23 team will take part and 7th SAFF Championship to be co-hosted by Sri Lanka and Maldives, AFC Challenge Cup next year in Taiwan.

“Several talented players of Pakistan origin are living in European and South American nations. We are well prepared to utilize their skills for our forthcoming assignments,” Faisal said in a statement.

He said that England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, had talented Pakistani origin players who could join the national side.

According to the PFF, the trials will be held at Millmoor Ground in South Yorkshire which is the home ground of Rotherham United who play English football league as fourth division club.

Although the PFF had deputed Muhammad Aref as trials coordinator it has not disclosed the names of the UK-based coaches who will select the players for the Pakistan side. The credentials of the coaches should be of utmost concern as relying on amateurs could be disastrous and will discourage talented players if they are sidelined intentionally or unwittingly.

The coordinator has been asked to encourage players in various age brackets to appear as the PFF has not imposed any restriction on age limit for the players willing to participate in the trials. The players selected on the first day of the trials will be asked to appear on Monday for final selection.

Besides Rotherham United, AsiaEurope Sports Group, which is an ethnic sports company in the UK, has extended cooperation. Its mission is to create a tournament which is aimed at uniting cultures through football.

"It is a great opportunity to host and bring together the potential of skill and talent from within the Asian community and have exposure to witness what's out there,” says Rotherham United chief operating officer Paul Douglas.

Pakistan soccer has seen a recent surge in the UK-born Pakistani players joining national team. Usman Gondal and Kashif Siddiqi have represented Pakistan while defender Zesh Rehman, the first British Pakistani to play in the Premiership for Fulham, made his international debut with Pakistan at 2005 South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) championship in Karachi.

Zesh, however, later switched to Queens Park Rangers and never returned to his parent country to play.