PFF presidency eligibility criteria under spotlight as congress considers amendments

Pakistan’s football affairs have entered into a decisive phase as the newly-elected PFF Congress is set to decide whether there is a need of amendments in the PFF Constitution especially in the Article 38 which carries the eligibility criteria for the PFF presidency.

The extraordinary congress meeting began at 11am today at the Pearl Continental Hotel Lahore and is being chaired by the PFF Normalization Committee chairman Haroon Malik.

On Monday an extensive discussion was made on this issue at a workshop, which was attended by the newly-elected PFF Congress members, NC and a three-member FIFA and AFC delegation.

The foreign delegation included Rolf Tanner, Head of MA Governance at FIFA, Niren Mukherjee, Head of the Deputy Secretary's Office in the Member Associations Division of AFC and Purushottam Kattel, Head of the South Asian Unit at AFC.

Amendments

According to sources in the workshop, FIFA and AFC representatives told Congress that they want to make certain amendments in the PFF Constitution and they were told about the reasons behind such steps. Congress was told to tell them how eligibility criteria should be made open so that more people could contest the elections for the PFF Presidency.

Sources indicate that the eligibility criteria for the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) Presidency are likely to be relaxed to benefit the sport, but not to the extent that it creates further complications.

Besides this matter other sections of the PFF Constitution related to the PFF elections, especially the timeline for the completion of a particular process, was also discussed.

Sources said that those congress members who did not attend the Monday’s workshop will have to engage in a discussion with their fellow congress members before the meeting in order to know about the actual situation.

The existing Article 38 of the PFF Constitution limits the eligibility criteria for the PFF Presidency.

“Candidate for the office of the President PFF shall have played an active role as member PFF Congress, Member PFF Executive Committee, PFF Elected Official, AFC, FIFA for at least 2 of the Preceding 5 years before being proposed as a candidate (i.e. The candidate for President PFF shall have been the member PFF Congress, PFF Executive and PFF Elected Official, AFC, FIFA Official / Member Committee for at least 2 of the preceding last 5 years,” the article says.

The Extraordinary Congress has been called in response to the letter from the FIFA Council dated March 14, 2024 which mandates a partial amendment to the PFF Statutes (2014).

The pertinent section of the mandate letter was also reproduced for reference, which stated that “finally, in view of certain provisions of the current PFF Constitution (in particular article 38) that greatly restrict the pool of potential candidates that can legitimately run in the elections of the PFF executive committee, the FIFA and AFC administrations have concluded that in order to guarantee that the upcoming PFF elections can be considered truly fair and democratic, a partial revision of the PFF Constitution is needed before the elective PFF Congress can take place. As a result, the Council also decided to include this additional task to the mandate of the Normalization Committee.”

The process is that NC, along with FIFA and AFC, will on Tuesday (today) propose the necessary amendments to the PFF Constitution and Congress will need to approve or disapprove by two-third majority. If Congress disapproves it by two-third majority, then the PFF elections will be conducted as per already existing Article 38. It means that the ball is in the court of Congress.

Congress members

Sindh Football Association: Azam Khan, Kifayatullah and Muhammad Siddique.

Balochistan Football Association: Jamil Ahmed Sarparah, Nasar Ullah and Abdul Malik.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Football Association: Syed Zahir Ali Shah, Nasarullah Khan and Asghar Khan.

Punjab Football Association: Naveed Aslam Khan Lodhi, Zaka Ullah and Raja Muhammad Ishtiaq.

Islamabad Football Association: Sheikh Ahmed Rehan

Higher Education Commission Sports Board: Javed Ali Memon

WAPDA Sports Control Board: Muhammad Habib

Pakistan Army Sports Control Directorate: Lt Col Syed Ghayoor Ali Hamdani

Women representatives: Barrister Maryam Omar, Ayesha Amir Khan and Eshrat Fatima.

Pakistan Football Referees Association: Mohammad Shafiq

Women Champions Club representative: Adeel Rizki

NC have been given mandate to conduct the PFF elections by December 15. However, it would be seen after today’s meeting whether the election for the PFF presidency could be conducted in the remaining few weeks until December 15 or FIFA will need to give further extension to the NC for this purpose.