Daily Times

LAHORE: Reinstated Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) president Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat has vowed to raise Pakistan football from scratch again. Addressing a press conference after the PFF executive committee meeting here Saturday, Faisal announced the Pakistan football activity, both national and international, for the year 2018. “PFF National Challenge Cup will be the opening event of our football activities which will be followed by other domestic and international football activities including Pakistan Premier League, National Women’s Championship, Referee and Coaching Courses while Pakistan national football teams will also participate in the Asian Games and SAFF Championship and the Women’s Under-16 and Women’s Under-19 SAFF Championships,” Faisal announced. The football activity was stalled for the last three years due to ‘third party interference’ and suspension of the PFF by the FIFA since last year. A Division Bench of the Lahore High Court restored Faisal-led PFF last month, and this resulted in the FIFA restoring the membership of Pakistan.

Faisal was elected PFF president during elections held on June 30, 2015 under the watchful eyes of the FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) representatives and were duly approved by both the football governing bodies. But a bunch of government-sponsored people not only occupied the FIFA Football House here, but also took hold of all the physical and financial matters of the federation, which was against the statutes of the FIFA, which termed it ‘third-party interference’ and after giving warnings time and again, finally suspended the PFF saying it can only be reinstated, when the physical and financial matters of the national federation would be handed back to the FIFA-recognised Faisal-led PFF.

Faisal thanked Almighty Allah while congratulating the whole football family of Pakistan. “Today it is a new dawn for Pakistan football. I am thankful to companion Congress members of the PFF, players, coaches, referees, organisers and the national federation’s staff who have suffered the pain for the last three years of turmoil.” The PFF chief also thanked the presidents of FIFA and Asian Football Confederation (AFC) at this occasion and said: “I am grateful to FIFA president Infantino Gianni and AFC chief Shaikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa for their cemented support, they provided to the PFF and the way they continuously endorsed the principal stand of the PFF.” He also thanked PFF lawyers late Advocate Asma Jahangir and Advocate Afzal Khan for their dedicated efforts due to which the PFF won their court cases. He also thanked the media personal who stood with the PFF throughout this depressing period.

He said the PFF had worked very hard and left no stone unturned for the promotion and development of football in Pakistan during the last decade, but the stoppage of football since the last three years due to interference in the PFF affairs had spoiled all such efforts. “We will have to again start the football development process from scratch.” Regarding the National Sports Policy of two terms, Faisal said the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) used to give a meagre grant to the Pakistan Football Federation which was also stopped some six years ago before the occupation of the Football House. “Time and again we have clarified to the PSB that are not bound to follow sports policy as we only follow only FIFA statues. The PFF is a private body which is bound to its own statutes in line with FIFA statutes. Hence, the PSB cannot compel us to follow its sports policy,” added Faisal.

Faisal said he had written to the FIFA and the AFC for special financial grants so that the PFF start rebuilding Pakistan football. “The FIFA House is in shambles, all major things including the record has been stolen. There is no money in the bank accounts of the PFF. That’s why we need money to restore everything.” He also informed that a FIFA delegation, on his invitation, would visit Pakistan March 24 to see what happened to Pakistan football in the last three years.

Published in Daily Times, March 18^th 2018.