Gillani elected as Pakistan football chief after years of turmoil

After years of uncertainty, the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) elections were finally held successfully on Tuesday in Lahore. Syed Mohsen Gillani, a former FIFA Development Officer, emerged as the new PFF president after forming an electoral alliance with the Hafiz Zakaullah Group.

Of the 24-member PFF Congress, Mohsen secured 13 votes while his rival candidate Taha Alizai got 11 votes. Taha was the candidate of Zahir Shah Group.

Zahir was set to contest for the PFF’s presidency but his suspension at the last moment deprived him of the opportunity to contest for the major slot.

Zahir, also a former Health Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, then brought in Taha, also a lawyer, as their candidate for the PFF’s presidency.

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According to the agreement, Mohsen will act as the PFF’s chief for the first one year and then Hafiz Zakaullah would be brought in as the PFF’s supremo.

This settlement, although, seems a bit awkward but Zaka had no option but to accept Mohsin’s demand that he will become the PFF’s president if he is to broker an alliance with his group.

Mohsen, a sharp person, used his trump card quite nicely to get the coveted post.

A huge challenge is ahead for Mohsen as national football has suffered massively during the last ten years.

The top target for Mohsen is to pick quality and skilled manpower for the PFF’s Secretariate as a lot of hard work will be needed if he is to revive the country’s football.

He also needs to bring in quality coaches from abroad and also will require to involve all the skilled and quality home-grown coaching staff in the entire enterprise in order to work properly for teams’ development at various age-groups.

A strong Director Technical, most preferably a foreigner, will be required to settle the things. Pakistan will direly need a solid league as it is the basic thing without which no nation can develop its football.

During the last ten years of turmoil and uncertainty, only once the Premier League was conducted. During this entire inactive time-frame several departments abolished their football teams and so numerous footballers lost their jobs.

Bringing in a pure club structure will be one of the big challenges for Mohsen. His PFF will need to decide whether there is still a need to carry the departmental structure which is no more a viable option if football is to develop in the real sense.

Although, Mohsen defeated Taha Ali Zai but he now should feel that he is the president of the PFF and he will need to treat all the football associations at the provincial and regional levels equally. Any discrimination will lead to a disastrous situation and he will in that case not be able to even protect his seat as the PFF’s chief for long time.

During the tenure of the FIFA-appointed Normalization Committee several football personalities were banned and it would be seen how Mohsen manages to lift bans from them which is extremely important if a congenial environment is created again.

Mohsen also will need to put women football also on the right track as there is an immense potential in that sector also. And definitely a sperate wing will be required to run the affairs of women football which also will need its own league.

Pakistan’s football plunged into a deep turmoil with the controversial elections of Punjab Football Association (PFA) in the spring of 2015. This led to create so many legal feuds and one faction even raided the PFF headquarters and occupied it.

The country’s football also saw two federations at a time and there was also a time when one national team was undergoing training at Bahrain and one at Islamabad.

FIFA eventually installed its Normalization Committee in 2019 but it also took too much time in holding the PFF’s elections.

It is hoped that a new football era will start under Mohsen who is expected to plead Pakistan’s case at the international forum quite effectively.