File photo of Roelant Oltmans with the Pakistan hockey team© X (Twitter)
Head coach Roelant Oltmans has ended his relationship with the Pakistan hockey team after refusing to join the team in China for the upcoming Asian Champions Trophy, citing lack of a long-term contract. Oltmans, who has been working with the senior team since early this year, was scheduled to join the team directly in Hulunbuir but backed out at the last moment. “Oltmans has notified the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) that he is not available for coaching as he wants a proper long-term contract with the PHF,” said an official source from the PHF.
The six-team ACT tournament is scheduled to take place from September 8-17.
The PHF source said Oltmans, who had also worked as the High Performance Director and head coach of the Indian hockey team between 2013 and 2017, was offered an “event-to-event” contract.
“The PHF has been hiring him for financial reasons and he was supposed to train the team during the event in China and then return home,” the source said.
“But Oltmans has now made it clear that he cannot work on an event-by-event basis and if the PHF requires his expertise, they must offer him a long-term contract,” the source added.
To make matters worse for Pakistan, captain Ammad Butt is not on good terms with the two local coaches, who are travelling with the team to China.
The PHF has been facing a financial crisis for a while and the Pakistan Sports Board has also refused to release funds of Rs 50 million for 27 players and six officials for the ACT.
However, the PSB said it had offered to pay for the airfares of 19 players and four officials because the funds demanded by the PHF were high.
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