ISLAMABAD-
Pakistan’s football chiefs Thursday invited Diego Maradona to visit the country after the Argentina legend disparagingly compared his own association to the South Asian nation s.
The 53-year-old accused the Argentine Football Association (AFA) of “understanding as much about football as Pakistan does”.
Naveed Haider, a senior official of the Pakistan Football Federation, welcomed the fact Maradona was talking about his country and urged him to visit to lift the game s profile.
“I would love Maradona to come to Pakistan and help Pakistan,” Haider told a foreign news agency, noting that the Argentine was already a sports ambassador for Dubai.
“He plays a very effective role and we welcome him to come and develop football here.”
He acknowledged that Pakistan, ranked a lowly 158th in the world, had a long way to go but said they had made great strides in recent times.
“We want to do more than we are doing but we have achieved a lot in the last few years,” Haider said, citing Pakistan winning the Asian Football Confederation’s “Aspiring” nation award last year.
He also noted Pakistan had climbed in the rankings from a low of 172 last year to their current position, and had recently drawn a match with higher-ranked Malaysia.
Tariq Lutfi, head coach of the Pakistani champions Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) said Maradona s comments were out-of-date.
“He would be right if he was talking 12 years back. But nowadays the federation is taking many steps including doing a lot for its youth programme,” he said.
Last month, KRL strikers Mohammad Adil and Kaleemullah signed for Kyrgyzstan champions FC Dordoi — a further sign of improving standards in Pakistan, according to Lutfi.
Maradona is widely regarded as one of football s greatest ever players and helped his team win the 1986 World Cup, but has never transferred his playing success to coaching, leading the South Americans to an ignominious 4-0 quarter-final exit to Germany at South Africa 2010.