Daily Times

Global football body FIFA is likely to send a delegation to Pakistan to assess the situation of the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) in a move that is hoped to be the first step in resolving the longrunning crisis in the country’s football governing body. FIFA’s intention, after nearly four years of Pakistan football being beset by problems off the pitch, was confirmed in an email sent to PFF vice-president Sardar Naveed Haider Khan by FIFA’s Head of Member Associations Governance Services Luca Nicola. Sardar, the president of the Punjab Football Association (PFA), had sought to meet FIFA secretary general Fatma Samoura in Zurich to apprise her of the situation of the PFF following elections ordered by the Supreme Court that saw longstanding president Faisal Saleh Hayat toppled from his post.

Last week FIFA had said that the PFF situation was on the agenda of FIFA`s Member Associations Committee which meets next month. FIFA’s Member Associations Committee will take the final decision on sending the delegation. It has been learnt that Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa played a vital role in FIFA deciding to send a mission. At the moment, FIFA recognises the PFF of Hayat but the body he leads isn’t recognised domestically after the Supreme Court ordered fresh elections of the country’s football governing body that saw Syed Ashfaq Hussain Shah elected as Pakistan’s football chief last December. That election saw Sardar Naveed desert longtime ally Hayat and support Ashfaq. Sardar was elected PFA president in another court-ordered election earlier last year. The PFF election did bring to a close a long-running legal wrangle but a final decision rests in the hands of FIFA which called the courtordered polls as ‘third-party interference’ in the affairs of its member association. In October last year, FIFA’s Member Associations committee had given the Hayat-led PFF an 18-month period until March 2020 to hold fresh elections.