LAHORE: The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has refused to recognise the results of the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) elections, which were held under the order of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. In a reply to the letter sent by the new PFF body to the AFC, the Asian body said they don’t recognise the elections which resulted in Syed Ashfaq Hussain becoming the new president of the PFF. Hussain, in a letter addressed to the AFC president Salman Bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa, had assured the body that the elections held were ‘transparent’ and ‘in accordance with the PFF statutes’. The new president also requested the AFC to send a fact-finding commission to Pakistan ‘before taking any further actions’. However, the AFC were clear in their reply that ‘the AFC does not recognise any such election’, since the it is a ‘contravention of the decision of the FIFA Associations Committee’. They went on to say that ‘they will continue to work with the current PFF office bearers, i.e. President Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat and the Executive Committee members’. The reply concluded with the following statement. “AFC is in consultation with FIFA on the future course of action which will be duly intimated to the officially recognised PFF. Meanwhile, the new PFF body is getting ready to take charge of the FIFA Football House on Monday as per the apex court’s orders.
Published in Daily Times, December 29th 2018.