Six SAFF members pull out of Saudi Arabia-led body

KARACHI: Pakistan and five other members of the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) on Tuesday pulled out of the newly-constituted Saudi Arabia-led South West Asian Football Federation (SWAFF) in an informal meeting of the SAFF nations on the eve of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Congress in Kuala Lumpur.

A source of the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) told ‘The News’ after the meeting in the AFC headquarters that the six nations out of seven in the meeting unanimously withdrew their SWAFF candidature as members and pledged their support for the AFC chief Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa in AFC’s coming elections.

The six members are Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. The source said that Maldives, the seventh member, was also on the verge of severing ties with SWAFF. “Maldives has asked for a two-week time. It says that it will fulfill formalities for negotiating the case with its Executive Committee before formally withdrawing its SWAFF membership,” the source said.

“No SAFF nation went to the SWAFF meeting held today,” the source said.The SWAFF was formed in August this year with 14 countries joining hands. Former chief of the Saudi Arabia Football Association Adel Ezzat was made president while the All India Football Federation (AIFF) vice-president Subrata Dutta became the vice-president of the new football body in its first general assembly held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in August.

A PFF source said that Ezzat’s decision to contest the AFC elections against Salman in the April 2019 was the reason behind the pull-out of the SAFF nations from SWAFF.“SWAFF had actually been formed for the development of football in the region. But when Ezzat showed his intention to contest elections against the AFC chief, its political agenda became obvious, compelling SAFF nations to withdraw their candidature,” the source said.

Ezzat had resigned from the top post of Saudi Football Federation in August, expressing his intention to run for the presidency of the AFC. “I presented to (Saudi sports authority chief) Turki al-Sheikh my resignation from my position as of today,” Ezzat had said, according to Arab News.

“I will begin preparing for elections of the AFC which will be held next year,” Ezzat said.The source said that the PFF chief Faisal Saleh Hayat in the meeting said that Salman had served Asian region well. “Faisal said that Salman has worked tremendously for the growth of football at the grassroots level in Asia, particularly South Asia, and ‘we should stand by him’,” the source said.The source said that PFF had announced its full support to Salman in the coming elections.