Head coach Roelant Oltmans ended his association with the Pakistan hockey team after he refused to join the side in China for the upcoming Asian Champions Trophy, citing the lack of a long-term contract. Oltmans, who has been working with the senior team from earlier this year, was scheduled to join the team directly in Hulunbuir but pulled out at the last moment. “Oltmans has notified the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) that he is not available for coaching as he wants a long-term proper contract with the PHF,” an official source in the PHF said.

The six-team ACT tournament is scheduled to be held between September 8 and 17.

The PHF source said Oltmans, who had also worked as Indian hockey team’s High Performance Director and head coach between 2013 and 2017, was offered an “event-to-event” contract.

“The PHF has been hiring him on assignment basis due to fund issues and he was supposed to coach the team during the event in China and then return home,” the source said.

“But Oltmans has now made it clear that he can’t work on an event-to-event basis and if the PHF requires his expertise they need to offer him a long-term contract,” the source added.

To make matters worse for Pakistan, captain Ammad Butt has not got along with the two local coaches, who are travelling with the team to China.

The PHF has faced a financial crunch for a while now and the Pakistan Sports Board has also refused to release funds of 50 million rupees for 27 players and six officials for the ACT.

The PSB, however, said it had offered to pay for the air tickets of 19 players and four officials as the funds being demanded by the PHF were high.

Three Pakistan hockey players and a physiotherapist have been banned for life for attempting to seek asylum in a European country after slipping away without the knowledge of the Pakistan Hockey Federation. PHF secretary-general Rana Mujahid confirmed on Thursday that Murtaza Yaqoob, Ihtesham Aslam and Abdur Rahman, along with physiotherapist Waqas, had gone to the Netherlands and Poland last month for the Nations Cup. “When the team returned home and we announced a training camp for the Asian Champions Trophy, the three informed us that due to domestic issues they wouldn’t be able to attend the camp,” Mujahid said.

“Later we came to know that they had flown out to Holland once again on the same Schengen visas issued to the team and sought political asylum there,” he added.

Mujahid said it was a “disappointing” episode for Pakistan hockey, which would make it difficult to apply for visas to European countries for international competitions.

He said that the PHF Congress had approved the lifetime ban and asked the PHF president to make efforts through the Pakistan consulate to bring them back for disciplinary action.

“We have already notified the interior and foreign ministries for further action,” he added.

The former Olympian acknowledged that while the PHF’s financial situation was challenging and that players had faced delays in their travel allowances and daily subsistence payments, these issues did not justify abandoning the national team and bringing disrepute to the country.