October 10 – FIFA has extended the mandate of the current Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) administration until March 2020, but with the requirement to organise fresh elections, bringing the PFF statutes in line with the FIFA statutes.
In 2015 Faisal Saleh Hayat was elected PFF president after a bitter feud with a rival fraction inside the federation, but FIFA voiced their concern over how the elections had been run and confirmed those concerns when giving the PFF until the spring of 2020 to conduct new elections.
The decision was taken by FIFA’s Member Associations Committee, but might not be sufficient to counter the ongoing crisis within Pakistani football. Pakistan’s Supreme Court reinstated Hayat as the PFF president as the Federation came back in March from a six-month ban imposed by FIFA.
Hayat’s fraction has maintained control over the PFF thanks to the persistence from the Asian Football Confederation, the AFC. Last month Hayat met FIFA president Gianni Infantino at the FIFA’s headquarters in Zurich. He asked the FIFA chief for an extension of his mandate. Hayat got his extension, with a term until June 2019 and a deadline of a further nine months to hold elections. In 2015 the FIFA Executive Committee had given him until September 2017 to stage the elections.
In a letter to the PFF FIFA Secretary General Fatma Samoura outlined the need for the Federation’s statutes to be conform FIFA’s statutes. “The committee was also informed about the visit of the PFF President Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat, to the Home of FIFA in Zurich. In this regard, it was briefed in detail on the contents of your earlier letter. especially with regard to the PFF’s request on the extension of the tenure of the PFF executive committee and the proposed roadmap,” read the FIFA letter.
“Once these steps have been completed, elections of a new PFF executive committee shall be held in a timely manner, but at the latest by the end of March 2020. The committee further mandated the FIFA administration to elaborate a roadmap laying out the aforementioned steps and taking into account the input of the PFF. In this regard, the FIFA administration will contact the PFF in due course.”
Contact the writer of this story Samindra Kunti at moc.l1713456626labto1713456626ofdlr1713456626owedi1713456626sni@o1713456626fni1713456626
