Future of national football hangs in balance as court decision due today

KARACHI: Lahore High Court (LHC) will announce its decision regarding Pakistan football on Thursday (today), sources private to the development told ‘The News’ on Wednesday.

Sources said that the lawyers had confirmed that the decision would be announced by the double bench at 12pm.

There were several cases in the LHC regarding football issues. The PFF’s case it had filed against the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) was very important.

Last summer the LHC single bench had dismissed all the petitions of Faisal Saleh Hayat group it had filed against the PSB. However, the same group went for intra-court appeal and after several consistent hearings, the double bench finally reserved the decision a few days ago. The PFF had challenged the legal entity of the PSB.

The decision of the court is extremely vital for country’s football to be resumed after 21 months.

Pakistan last played in international circuit in April 2015. The controversial elections of Punjab Football Association (PFA) in April 2015 created the whole mess.

During the same crucial period, the PFF suspended 20 members of PFA on certain grounds. This forced Arshad Lodhi group to convene an extra-ordinary PFF congress in Islamabad in which the PFF chief Faisal Saleh Hayat was suspended and his secretary Ahmed Yar Lodhi was terminated. Later the same group also occupied the PFF headquarters in Lahore.

Then Faisal-led PFF held its elections at Changa Galli, Abbottabad, on June 30 despite the court stay order it had issued on June 29, 2015. The elections were held in the presence of an observer of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

A contempt of court case was also initiated against Faisal and his few other associates. Later the LHC declaerd the June 30 elections as null and void and appointed former justice Asad Muneer as PFF administrator. He is still serving in the same capacity.

In August 2015, FIFA sent a fact-finding mission to Lahore and it interviewed both the factions. And at the end of the year, FIFA executive committee gave two years to Faisal Group with the advice to revise PFF constitution and hold fresh elections until September 2017.

As the PFF headquarters was in the possession of the rival group and the PFF accounts were frozen so the PFF could not act as advised by FIFA.

Because of the dispute, Pakistan had to miss several international events. The country also failed to organise its Premier League in 2015 and 2016.