Green shirts must now focus on bronze medal: PHF

Shahbaz said the team is very disappointed for not being qualified.

ISLAMABAD (APP):Disappointed on Pakistan hockey team’s performance in the Asian Games, Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) Secretary Shahbaz Ahmed Sr said Green-shirts must now focus on bringing a bronze medal home in their third position match against India on Saturday.

Shahbaz said the team is very disappointed for not being qualified for the final but they must now totally focus on beating India and bringing a bronze medal home.

“Winning and losing is part of the game but Pakistan team must forget about the past and think about winning the third position match,” he said in a video message received here.

Meanwhile Pakistan hockey team manager Hasan Sardar has blamed bad umpiring a reason for green-shirts 0-1 loss against Japan in the Asian Games semi final.

Sardar said the field and third umpire Javed Shiekhand and V Raghu Prasad both were Indians and were biased towards Pakistan. “All the referrals went against us and the Video Umpire supported the Japanese,” he said.

He said we were awarded a penalty stroke in the 44th minute, but Japanese appealed against this decision and to our amazement Video umpire upheld the Japanese protest. “We were deprived of a goal. We had protested against the Indian officials before and after the match but they ignored our protests,” he said.