BFA to support Faisal, says Haji Saeed

KARACHI: A key figure behind the newly-elected Balochistan Football Association (BFA) Haji Saeed on Saturday said that they have already decided about their unconditional support to Pakistan Football Federation’s (PFF) chief Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayat.
“We have decided to support Faisal,” Haji Saeed, a renowned business personality of Chaman told ‘The News’ on Saturday.
When asked why he was not supporting Faisal’s rival Syed Zahir Ali Shah in the PFF elections, Haji Saeed recalled: “In the 2011 election of the BFA, our group had 13 votes, while our rival group of Jan Mohammad Marri had only three votes. But Marri Group was declared the winners. We requested Zahir Shah and Arshad Khan Lodhi for support but they did not respond positively.”
“Around one and a half year ago, Faisal phoned me and I assured him that we would support him. I reiterate that our support for Faisal will be unconditional,” Haji Saeed said.
In the BFA election held in Quetta on April 17, Abdur Rauf Nautezai got elected as president of the provincial association.
The Dalbindin-born Nautezai was also part of the PFF delegation that visited Bahrain the other day to attend the Asian Football Confederation’s (AFC) Congress meeting as a mere observer along with eight other unnecessary persons which the federation had taken.
Haji Saeed said that he would not involve in any kind of politics, saying, his main purpose was to work for the development of football in Balochistan.
To a query, Saeed said that Faisal had offered him an astro-turf for Chaman but the required land for the purpose could not be managed.
Meanwhile, a statement of Nautezai on the letter-head of the BFA which was forwarded to media by the PFF on Saturday said that the BFA Congress had unanimously decided to support Faisal as the PFF chief for his meritorious services for Pakistan football during the last 12 years.
It was due to efforts from Faisal that Pakistan was given eight goal projects by FIFA.
“No one can deny the unprecedented development of football in Pakistan during the last decade,” Nautezai said.