Fact-finding FIFA mission arrives in Pakistan today

KARACHI: In order to know about the facts of football disorder in Pakistan and for its subsequent resolution a three-member fact-finding mission of FIFA and AFC will land in Lahore on Saturday (today) to hold separate meetings with Pakistan Football Federation’s (PFF) chief Faisal Saleh Hayat and his rival and a senior congress member Syed Zahir Shah.
The delegation will be headed by member of FIFA Associations Committee and Cyprus FA President Costas Koutsokoumnis. The head of National Associations of FIFA Primo Corvaro and the AFC Director Member Associations Si Song Mun are the other members of the mission.
A senior official of PFF confirmed the arrival of the mission.
“Yes, a three-member delegation headed by Costas will reach Lahore tomorrow,” the official said.
“They will hold separate meetings with the PFF officials and Zahir Shah,” the official said.
FIFA did not confirm the arrival of the delegation on Saturday but said that such a move was in pipeline.
“We can confirm that FIFA and AFC will conduct in the coming days a fact finding mission in Pakistan under the chairmanship of the member of the FIFA Associations Committee and Cyprus FA President Costas Koutsokoumnis,” a FIFA spokesperson wrote to this correspondent on Friday.
“The mission will report its findings to the relevant FIFA and AFC bodies. We have no further comment at this stage,” the official added.
A source in the Zahir Shah Group said that they would know the timing of the meeting on Saturday (today).
Following a row over Punjab Football Association’s (PFA) elections and controversial handling of the matter by Sports Board Punjab (SBP), the PFF imposed life ban on 20 senior members of PFA. This forced Faisal’s rival group to convene an extraordinary congress of the PFF in Islamabad. In the meeting Faisal Hayat was suspended while his secretary Col Ahmed Yar Lodhi was dismissed.
A senior congress member and former PFF secretary Lodhi was made PFF acting president while former PFF Director Member Associations Col Farasat Ali Shah was assigned the task of acting secretary.
The same group then occupied the PFF house, claiming that they had taken charge of the PFF affairs as per rules.
As already had been announced the PFF elections were scheduled to be held on June 30. Faisal-led PFF announced that they would hold their elections at Changla Gali while Zahir Shah Group was set to hold its electoral meeting at Lahore. However, on June 29, Lahore High Court (LHC) stayed the elections. But the PFF held its elections near Changla Gali on June 30 in the presence of AFC observer Sanjeevan Balasingam, claiming that they had not received a copy of the court order.
The rival group filed a contempt of court petition against Faisal and his secretary Col Ahmed Yar Lodhi.
A few days ago, the LHC declared the PFF June 30 elections null and void. The court also issued notices to Faisal, Lodhi and a few others. Former LHC justice Asad Muneer was appointed as administrator and was given the task to conduct an audit of the PFF accounts and hold elections within four weeks. The copy of the court order is yet to be released. The LHC’s next hearing will be on September 18.
In the meantime the PFF also went to Islamabad High Court (IHC) and prayed that its accounts should be defreeze which were frozen on the instructions of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) who had initiated a probe into the PFF for its alleged involvement in corruption.
The PFF was also of the view that being a private entity FIA was not entitled to investigate against it.
On Friday, a hearing in the same case was scheduled but the IHC after listening to both parties adjourned it till August 11.
Because of the frozen accounts the PFF also decided not to field its football team in the Under-16 SAFF Cup to be held in Bangladesh this month. Pakistan’s participation in a handful of other international events in the next five months is also under a serious threat.