Khondoker Jamiluddin, the general secretary of Bangladesh Hockey Federation has refuted coach Gerhard Peter Rach’s claim of the federation being an ‘Old Town Mafia’, adding that the German apparently indulged in this smear campaign in an effort to shirk his responsibility for the Asiad debacle.
“Someone has to take the blame for the hockey team’s failure in the Asian Games. It seems coach wanted to avoid his share of the responsibility. His calling the federation as an ‘old town mafia’ is baseless and bereft of truth,” said Jamil replying to German coach’s allegations in his eight-page report on the hockey team in the Asian Games.
“Even before the Asian Games, he blamed the federation and its officials without having any valid ground for such allegations. We had arranged everything he wanted and sent the team to Germany for a two-month training as per his demand,” Jamil said.
“He cannot disown the team selection and blame the chief selector solely for it, because the chief selector has always kept communicating with him before picking the final squad.”
Asked about the alleged irresponsibility shown by some of the officials in Guangzhou, Jamil said: “His (Peter) view of the officials is not correct and it does not fall into his jurisdiction. However, we will look into it if there was any irresponsibility on part of the assigned officials in an emergency meeting on Saturday.”
Jamil, however, believed that Bangladesh’s hockey has improved under the guidance of Rach even though the standing in the Asiad has gone down.
The BHF general secretary informed that they would terminate the German coach for his careless remarks. It might be mentioned here that the four-month contract that Rach signed with the BHF in September has already expired on November 30 and the German has left Bang-ladesh last Monday.
