FIFA warns it may suspend Pakistan

KARACHI: Pakistan’s football issue may take a nasty twist in near future as the world football governing body (FIFA) has warned that it may suspend the country if Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) was not handed over its headquarters in Lahore and its accounts by July 31.

“The situation of the PFF was discussed by the FIFA Member Associations Committee during its meeting on July 4, 2017. It was discussed that the potential extension of the deadline (from 30 September 2017 to 30 June 2019) to revise the PFF statutes and organise elections will be conditional on the strict implementation of an action plan and a regular reporting mechanism,” a FIFA spokesman told ‘The News’ on Wednesday. “Furthermore, the committee pointed out that while court proceedings are still ongoing the court appointed administrator continues to occupy the PFF offices and to control its accounts.

“Therefore, the committee decided that if the PFF offices and access to the PFF accounts are not returned to the PFF leadership led by Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat by JuIy 31, 2017, it would recommend to the FIFA Council to suspend the PFF for contravening its obligations under articles 14 and 19 of the FIFA Statutes,” the spokesman added.

Due to the conflict between the FIFA-recognised PFF led by Faisal and Arshad Lodhi group, Pakistan has been a non-playing nation for the last 26 months. If Pakistan is suspended it will aggravate the misery of the players and the whole football community.

The conflict emerged after the controversial elections of Punjab Football Association (PFA) in April 2015. When the federal minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) Riaz Pirzada was contacted he said the IPC ministry and Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) had distanced themselves from the issue. “You may recall suspension was looming as a result of the conflict between the PSB and Pakistan Olympic Association (POA). We prevented Pakistan from suspension by striking a deal with the world sports governing body. We also pledged that IOC charter would be thoroughly followed and we did that and recognised the POA. We only recognise those federations which are affiliated with their International Federations (IFs),” Pirzada told this correspondent.

“We had also written to FIFA that the sports ministry does not violate its (FIFA) charter. We respect FIFA. Our legal counsel has also told Lahore High Court (LHC) that IPC and PSB have no involvement in the matter. We also said the court should resolve the football issue in the light of international laws,” Pirzada said.

He said that PFF had had issues with the PSB but those had been resolved. “We are totally against FIFA ban. I request FIFA to send its delegation and try to resolve the issue. My humble request to FIFA is that as the matter is in courts, so please respect our courts,” the minister said.

He said that he would tell the PSB Director General to write another letter to FIFA to tell it that Pakistan government had no involvement in the whole episode.

When asked about some influential people in the government who had allegedly played a role in manipulating the extraordinary congress in Islamabad and the occupation of PFF headquarters in Lahore in June 2015, the minister said that Hafiz Salman Butt and a “mafia” were behind that. “They had also done so against former PFF president Mian Azhar. Faisal Saleh Hayat and General Arif Hasan, the POA chief, were brought in by General Musharraf,” Pirzada said.

He said that Faisal had also created problems for himself. “He is stuck because of his own wrongdoings. Some of the federating units rose against him as he failed to run the system in a transparent manner,” Pirzada said.

The PFF case will be heard after summer vacations in September.

On April 6, 2017, the Supreme Court set aside the LHC’s decision of February 2, 2017, and referred the case back to the LHC double bench with the instructions to decide it on merit.

In August 2015, FIFA sent a fact-finding mission to Lahore. Upon its report, the world body gave two years to Faisal’s group to revise the PFF constitution and hold fresh elections of the PFF by September 2017.

However, nothing has been done in that direction. Following the AFC Member Association’s task force recommendation in May this year in Bahrain, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) wrote to FIFA on May 17 for extending the PFF mandate for two years, until 2019.

FIFA recently suspended Sudan’s football body over a similar issue.

A FIFA letter says that the suspension would only be lifted once the decree of the undersecretary of the Ministry of Justice of June 2, 2017, was declared null and void and the Board of Directors of the SFA with its President, Dr Mutasim Gaafar Sir Elkhatim, was reinstated.