Meeting to discuss South West Asian Football body on May 31

KARACHI: Saudi Arabian Football Federation has invited presidents of football associations affiliated with the West Asian Football Federation (WAFF) and South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) for a meeting on May 31 to discuss the formation of South West Asian Football Federation (SWAFF).

A highly reliable source told ‘The News’ that it was not known who would represent Pakistan in the meeting.“The PFF president Faisal Saleh Hayat is in England for medical treatment and it is not known what decision he will take about attending the meeting,” the source said.

The first informal meeting of the proposed SWAFF was held in Jeddah a few days ago. That meeting, which was held on the sidelines of Kings Cup final in Jeddah, was attended by representatives of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Yemen, Bahrain, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives.

Representatives of Nepal and Bhutan had not attended the meeting for various reasons. However, sources said that they were expected to attend the second meeting. Initially May 25 had been announced as the meeting day but it was postponed. It had been decided that the next meeting would be held after FIFA World Cup which would begin next month in Russia.

But the sudden change in plans shows the urgency of the situation. The sources said that FIFA and Asian Football Confederation (AFC) have also been invited.They added that input of FIFA and AFC is very important to clear the legal position of the association.