Usman pays EFP’s membership fee to secure participation in Robertson event

KARACHI: Pakistan’s Melbourne-based equestrian Usman Khan on Monday protected his participation in this week’s Olympic qualifying round in Robertson, New South Wales, when he acted promptly to restore Equestrian Federation of Pakistan (EFP) membership by paying annual subscription fee from his own pocket to the international equestrian governing body (FEI).

It is the responsibility of the EFP to take care of such fee and dues which need to be deposited on time with FEI in order to prevent any such issues.

The FEI had suspended the membership of EFP for not paying annual subscription fee. ‘The News’ learnt that after Usman paid 1000 Swiss Franc to the FEI, the EFP’s membership was restored on Monday.

As per rules the membership is automatically restored once fee is deposited.

Earlier on Monday, when ‘The News’ asked EFP through an email about the matter it said that it had already deposited the fee. “We have already sent amount of 2,960.00 Swiss Franc to the international federation but there is some confusion as they are saying that have not received the said amount,” the EFP wrote to this correspondent on Monday.

“We are in correspondence with them and soon this issue will be resolved,” the EFP was quick to add.

The details provided to this correspondent by the EFP shows that it deposited outstanding amount of 2960 Swiss Franc, which includes membership fee and other dues, with the FEI on 10-4-2019. But sources said that the EFP had not deposited the annual subscription fee with the FEI for 2020.

This correspondent wrote to EFP that the transaction had been made in 2019, to which the federation had not replied till filing of this report.

Usman, after a 15-year struggle and investment of millions in his training, last year qualified for the Tokyo Olympics through his horse Azad Kashmir, who unfortunately died a few months back. Usman, now with his new horse, is bracing up for maintaining his Olympics slot.

If he maintained his seat, he would be the first ever Pakistani equestrian to represent the country at the world’s biggest stage.

Robertson’s event will be his first since the outbreak of Covid-19. He will feature in another event in January. Usman will need to participate in minimum five events until June.

As per details of the Robertson’s qualifying round the athletes will arrive on Wednesday (tomorrow). It would be followed by trot up on December 3, dressage on December 4, cross country on December 5 and show jumping on December 6.