KABUL (SW): Segrt Petar, the Croatian-born German coach and former football defender has revealed the reason behind his sudden resignation as the head coach of Afghanistan’s national football team.
Hours before a friendly match against Tajikistan on Sunday, the Afghanistan Football Federation (AFF) named Afghanistan’s very own Anosh Dastageer head coach of the national football squad to replace Petar Segrt. This reportedly followed the departure of Petar to Germany after completing his one year contract, and without disclosing the reasons behind not renewing the contract.
As the Afghanistan Football Federation (AFF) remained mum over the issue, the former head coach decided to reveal the reasons why he quit at a last moment. In a post on social media, he said that Sayed Ali Reza Aghazada, AFF General Secretary asked him to get down of the bus that was taking players to the airport for their flight to Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
“So, I go out of the ready bus and when I am in this meeting [with Aghazada] with the player Islam Amiri is in the same time going in the bus and the Afghan national team starts [travelling] without me to the Airport in Kabul”, he said.
Segrt Petar said that he told Aghazada that as a head coach he does not want Amiri back in the team. He pronounced Amiri as a ‘big problem’ while recalling incidents in the past when Amiri, the former captain of the national team led six players’ rebellion against the former coach. Segret Petar has also criticized Amiri’s character while saying that his return would affect preparations for the forthcoming Asia Cup Qualification in 2017.
Afghanistan has won 6 out of eight officials games without Amiri, he recalled.
“I feel sorry for this decision [recalling Amiri] by the AFF, but I am professional coach and in my opinion Afghanistan need a strong national head coach because Afghanistan is a very strong country with many problems but great strong people”, he said. The Croatian-born German has ended his message thanking the Afghan nation and Afghan players for the love and respect.
In response to these hard-hitting message by Segrt Petar, Ali Raza Kazimi, head of media affairs at the AFF told Salam Watandar that a press conference would be held soon.
ENDS
