Pakistan’s football is facing a serious crisis for the past two years due to infighting between different groups of Pakistan Football Federation (PFF). The two groups of PFF have gone to the courts to seek justice.

Interestingly, football is a sport which is not played at a large scale in Pakistan. It is not officially patronised at a high level. But stakes of the people concerned in these divided groups of the federation are very high. Many people in these divided groups have no sports credentials.

This is one example of how politics and rifts between different groups and organisations are ruining sports in Pakistan. This is going on for years in the absence of a strict policy and rules regarding the federations of different sports in Pakistan. In 2015, controversial elections caused split in the PPF creating factions amid allegations of corruption and embezzlements.

There was a serious division within Pakistan Olympics Association (POA) a couple of years ago. The matter was taken to the court and was resolved after intervention of the international official body of Olympics. Similar rifts are seen in other associations of sports like volleyball, swimming, badminton, basketball, etc.

"Such politics and infighting has become common in sports federations and institutions to grab power and have control over lots of money," says Abdul Mohi Shah, a senior sports journalist.

There are local and international grants. "For example, the running of football federation. The groups in PFF are only because of politics, money and intent to grab power. In the recent past, there have been two to three million USD grant to PFF. Such international grants are used without any accountability mechanism because they are not determined and examined by government’s auditor general office according to the law and rules," he says.

Pakistan has gone down in volleyball ranking due to such divisions during the past few years. Such divisions affect the healthy environment and sports activities and create challenges for sportspersons.

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At the moment, nobody is running the PFF because of this politics. On the other hand, there is less politics and infighting seen in cricket and hockey associations because of proper official patronage. President or Prime Minister is patron-in-chief of the two sports.

At the moment, there are 38 federations of different sports registered with the Pakistan Sports Board. A federation consists of provincial and regional organisation and associations of a sport.

"One obvious reason for the rifts is that there is no accountability. And everybody is challenging the National Sports Policy of 2005. The policy bars third term of a key office-bearer of a federation. However, there people and groups who go to courts for these things," says Azam Dar, director (federations) of Pakistan Sports Board.

He says the National Sports Policy was announced to be made in 2001 and it took four years due to rifts and opposition by different groups. Now, all federations are supposed to be registered with PSB and according to rules there is bar on a third term.

After the 18th Amendment, federal sports ministry was devolved. However, provinces have done little to make their sports policies. At the federal level, Inter Provincial (IPC) Coordination Ministry is dealing with sports matters as additional portfolio. Experts believe there should be a proper sports ministry at the federal level.