Pakistan Hockey Team Manager Offloaded During Fuel Stop For Smoking Inside Airplane

Last Updated:December 20, 2025, 14:24 IST

The former Olympian, along with a Pakistan player, was not allowed to board the plane to Dubai after he was found smoking when the flight stopped in Brazil for refuelling.

Within minutes of lighting up a cigarette, your blood pressure and heart rate rise, arteries become narrower and stiffer, blood becomes thicker and more likely to form clots, and oxygen supply to the heart starts dropping.

Former Pakistan hockey Olympian Anjum Saeed, who accompanied the senior Pakistan team to the FIH Pro League in Argentina as manager, has landed in controversy after being caught smoking inside an airplane during an international flight, triggering concern and condemnation over a serious violation of aviation safety norms.

Anjum was offloaded in Brazil for smoking on the airplane while it was refuelling at the Rio de Janeiro airport.

The former Olympian, along with a Pakistan player, was not allowed to board the plane to Dubai after he was found smoking when the flight stopped in Brazil for refuelling.

Anjum, a former defender and midfielder who featured in the 1992 Olympic semifinal and was part of the squads that won the World Cup and Champions Trophy in 1994, had been sent to Argentina as the team manager.

However, after returning home this week, he claimed that he did not travel back with the team as he had some personal work in Dubai.

But an official in the Pakistan Sports Board said they had asked the Pakistan Hockey Federation to hold an independent inquiry into the incident as the incident doesn’t reflect well on Pakistan sports.

The official said they had collected their own information but were waiting to see what action the PHF would take, given the seriousness of the matter.

“Apparently the matter was escalated by Anjum and another player when the manager was confronted for smoking on the airplane as it refuelled," he said.

Pakistan didn’t have a good outing in their first ever FIH Pro League appearance.

(With inputs from PTI)

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