Major blow for Pakistan football as FIFA suspends PFF

Pakistan's football continues to suffer as FIFA late Thursday night suspended Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) after its newly-elected Congress rejected the proposed amendments in the 2014 PFF constitution.

This is the third time since 2017 that the PFF had to face suspension. The previous two blows the PFF received were due to third party's interference and now decision of its own congress went against it.

"The PFF has been suspended with immediate effect due to its failure to adopt a revision of the PFF Constitution that would ensure truly fair and democratic elections and thereby fulfil its obligations as mandated by FIFA as part of the ongoing normalization process of PFF," FIFA said in its statement.

"The suspension will only be lifted subject to the PFF Congress approving the version of the PFF Constitution presented by FIFA and the AFC," the statement added.

This is tough for the country's football and a real challenge for the newly-elected PFF Congress which will now have to accept the FIFA's proposition relating to the amendments in the PFF statutes, the ones which were duly approved by the world body way back in 2014.

A group of Congress members were on Thursday making efforts to take time from FIFA in order to rethink before making final decision relating to the amendments. But hours after FIFA took the decision, the PFF Normalization Committee chairman Haroon Malik also informed the National Assembly Standing Committee on IPC on Thursday that FIFA may face action following the deadlock created between the world body and the PFF Congress.

Nukta also discussed this issue with a very well-placed source before the suspension and the body language of the source indicated that something unwanted was going to happen.

NC had also directly and indirectly started its efforts to convince Congress members to accept the amendments in the constitution as proposed by FIFA but the world body's pressure tactics to suspend Pakistan are too heavy.

Now it seems that Congress will have to take a U-turn for the sake of the country's football which has been hit massively by disputes since long.

A complete generation has been deprived of its right to play football for the nation. Some star footballers were wasted by such disputes which were also made more complicated by the Normalization Committees at times.

FIFA and AFC's hands-off approach in Pakistan's football governance also raised questions. Stakeholders were unhappy with the Normalization Committee members, but prioritized holding elections over resistance.

On November 19 last year, the PFF extraordinary Congress was convened at the Pearl Continental Hotel at Lahore which was also attended by a delegation of FIFA and the AFC. However, the meeting had hardly started when a few members of departments forced their way into the meeting hall telling the meeting that the proceedings could not be progress without their presence.

And on this FIFA and AFC delegation consulted the matter with NC members and it was decided that the meeting should be postponed. NC had suspended the Congress membership of PAF, Navy, Police, Railways and PIA for not fielding their teams in the required events.

However, this matter was referred to the PFF disciplinary committee and it after formal hearings restored the Congress membership of four departments except PIA as it did not plead its case.

On January 24, the PFF Extraordinary Congress was conducted virtually and during this meeting Congress rejected the proposed amendments with 19-6 majority and a huge deadlock was created.

It was expected that FIFA would respect the Congress stand and would go back to the 2014 original constitution for the conduction of the PFF elections but it did not happen. Being a sole financier FIFA seem to override the integrity of Congress and would force it to accept the amendments.

FIFA could easily make the required amendments after the elections of the PFF which are still due.

FIFA even in 2019 had written to the PFF that the newly-elected Executive Committee of PFF would go to revise the statutes of the PFF within one year in consultation with FIFA and AFC in order to bring them in line with the FIFA statutes. But now it's stand seems different.

FIFA wants to make wide open the criteria of the PFF presidency eligibility. However, Congress did not want this but it wanted to restrict it to the 36 ExCo members of the four federation units and Islamabad Football Association.

Football has been damaged in Pakistan massively over the years.

Even NC failed to do anything noteworthy during the last five years. It did not even conduct a league for the players. Its members made huge money during the last few years without doing anything big. A huge secretariat was run during the entire exercise and big money was spent even on its security as the PFF headquarters always remained sealed which was not the case a few years ago when the PFF was in the possession of the elected people.