‘Fair club scrutiny a must to ensure transparent football elections’

KARACHI: Pakistan Football Federation’s (PFF) former Secretary General Col Mujahid on Saturday said that a proper club scrutiny would ensure transparency in the PFF elections to be conducted by a FIFA-appointed committee.

“Proper club scrutiny would pave the way for transparent elections at district, provincial and federation level,” Mujahid told ‘The News’ after the world football governing body decided to appoint a normalisation committee for the PFF on Saturday.

It was expected that FIFA would decide the matter by October after a joint mission of FIFA and Asian Football Confederation (AFC) investigated the dispute last month in Lahore by listening to the points of view of both the parties.

Mujahid said that the committee has to frame bylaws for the scrutiny of the clubs. He also termed FIFA’s decision to appoint a normalisation committee for the PFF a positive development.

“I told you that FIFA would be take such a decision. I think it is a golden opportunity now to resolve this pressing issue for ever,” he said. He was quick to add that the committee would have to ensure fair club scrutiny and transparent elections.

“In 1989, too, a normalisation committee had been appointed in which two members from both parties had been taken along with a representative from FIFA. I think that mechanism is going to be repeated,” he said.

To a question about the eligibility for PFF’s presidency, Mujahid said it would be interesting to see who would fulfill the criteria.

However, he was quick to add that the committee would have to dissolve the whole set-up before taking any step. “The committee will have to dissolve the whole set-up first. It will have to send home all provincial and district associations before going for a neutral and impartial scrutiny of the clubs before undertaking the tasks of districts, provincial and PFF elections,” Mujahid said.