Pakistan Football Federation

Last updated

Pakistan Football Federation
AFC
New2008 PFFlogo.png
Short namePFF
Founded5 December 1947;76 years ago (1947-12-05)
HeadquartersFootball House, Opposite Punjab Stadium, Ferozepur Road, Lahore, Pakistan.
Membership7 (Provincial associations including Islamabad Football Association)
FIFA affiliation1948
AFC affiliation1954
SAFF affiliation1997
PresidentHaroon Malik [1]
Vice-President(Vacant)
General Secretary(Vacant)
Website www.pff.com.pk OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

The Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) is the national governing body of association football in Pakistan. [2] It is a member of FIFA, the international governing body of football and affiliated to the Asian Football Confederation and South Asian Football Federation. The federation was founded in 1947, it also manages the futsal and beach soccer national teams.

Contents

History

Upon Pakistan's independence in 1947, both East and West wings of the country inherited the football infrastructure of the British Raj. [3] [4] The need for establishing a nationwide football association to govern the game properly was urgent, since India had inherited the erstwhile Calcutta-based Indian Football Association and the All-India Football Federation (AIFF).

Thus, on 5 December 1947 the Pakistan Football Federation was created. Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Pakistan's first Governor-General, became the patron-in-chief, and in 1948, the PFF became affiliated with FIFA. [5] It was also one of the founding members of the Asian Football Confederation in 1954. [6] PFF organized the first National Football Championship from 28 May to 5 June 1948 in Karachi, with Sindh Red beating Sindh Blue in the final. [7] [8]

However, the game could not develop as smoothly as it should have. [9] Pakistan's participation in international competitions has not been regular. The standard achieved in the early 1950s could not be maintained because of lack of organization of the game. [9]

Competitions

Men's senior

Women's senior

Women's junior

National teams

Affiliated federations

There are currently 7 provincial associations affiliated with the PFF[ citation needed ]

Board of directors

The following are on the board of the directors at the PFF. [10]

NamePosition
Flag of Pakistan.svg Haroon Ahmed MalikPresident (Chairman FIFA Normalization Committee)
(vacant)Vice-president
(vacant)Secretary General
(vacant)Technical Director
Flag of England.svg Stephen Constantine Head Coach (Senior Men's)
Flag of Pakistan.svg Adeel Rizki [11] Head Coach (Senior Women's)
(vacant)Director of Media
Flag of Pakistan.svg Muhammad Yashal MazharMedia And Communication Manager
Flag of Pakistan.svg Muhammad Raza FazliDirector of Futsal
Flag of Pakistan.svg Khurram ShahzadReferee Coordinator

Presidents

PresidentTermRef
Mohammad Ali Jinnah (Patron-in-Chief)1948 [12]
Fazlurrehman 1948 – 1949
Major Khursid Anwar 1948 – 1949
Khawaja Shahabuddin 1950 – 1951
DR A.M.Malik 1952 – 1958
Muhammad Sharif Khan1956 – 1958
Ata ur rehman 1958 – 1960
Justice A. Sattar 1960 – 1961
Air Marshal Asghar Khan 1962 – 1965
Khan Abdus Sabur 1965 – 1972
Abdul Sattar Gabol1972 – 1977
Justice Fida Muhammad Khan 1978 – 1981
General Fazl-e-haq 1981 – 1988
Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao 1988 – 1989
Wasim Sajjad 1989
Mian Muhammad Azhar 1990 – 2003
Faisal Saleh Hayat 2003 – 2017
Ashfaq Hussain Shah2018 – 2021 [13]

Secretary-Generals

Secretaries-GeneralTermRef
Hafiz Salman Butt1991 – 1994 [9]
Haris Jamil Alam Khan2019 – 2020
Manizeh Zainli 2020 – 2021 [14]

Normalization Committee

ChairmanTermRef
Humza Khan2019 – 2020 [15]
Munir Ahmad Khan Sadhana2020 – 2021 [15]
Haroon Malik2021 – present [16]

Controversies & suspensions

Over the past several years, the Pakistan Football Federation has been accused of several corruption scandals and incompetence in running the day-to-day footballing activities in Pakistan. Local media outlets have described the current situation of the PFF as a "horror show". [17]

Faisal Saleh Hayat incompetence

In August 2003, the PFF became under new management, as the politician Faisal Saleh Hayat took over. He has been described as a "feudal lord of Pakistani football". [18] During his controversial tenure, Pakistan's FIFA ranking dropped from 168 in 2003 to 201 in 2017. [19] The top division of the Pakistan Premier League also remained suspended because the crisis created due to his actions, along with the men's senior team, who remained suspended from any international competition since March 2015, and FIFA rankings of the senior team had slumped. [20] [21]

2015–2017 crisis

Just before PPF elections in 2015, two groups were formed within the federation and there infighting in the federation due to which FIFA took notice and told the federation to solve the matters, being in contact with AFC.

In June 2015, 18 of the 26 members of the PFF voted in favor of Faisal Saleh Hayat's dismissal for incompetence and embezzlement of funds. [22] Controversy began at the Punjab Football Association, when the Hayat-backed Sardar Naveed Haider Khan toppled incumbent Arshad Khan Lodhi. Several of Lodhi's voters were banned by Hayat's illegal disciplinary committee. With this, Zahir Ali Shah, a PFF vice-president, turned against Hayat and announced his intention to run for PFF presidency. Shortly after his announcement, allegations emerged from Shah claiming that Hayat had changed several clauses of the PFF constitution to suit himself in the presidential election. The PFF eventually split into two groups following an Extraordinary Congress meeting that suspended Hayat. With the election approaching, the two factions announced their own election venues. The Lahore High Court was forced to intervene in and ordered a stay on polling and appointed a temporary administrator until matters were resolved between the two factions. [23]

On 30 June, the elections were declared null by Lahore High Court, attended by AFC observer, Sanjeevan Balasinggam. [24] The PFF chairman Faisal Saleh Hayat said that the "Elections were approved by AFC, but the Asian governing body had no comment on the situation." [24] The row intensified when the Hayat faction went on and held election anyway, disobeying the Lahore High Court stay order. [25] FIFA then intervened and sent a fact-finding mission. They concluded that Hayat be given a mandate for two years, in which he would have to amend PFF statutes and form an independent disciplinary committee before holding elections again. [26] [27]

The Lahore High Court appointed administrator Asad Munir was given authority to manage football activity in Pakistan, while the two factions sorted out differences. In a shocking move, the Hayat faction swiftly withdrew the Pakistan team from the 2015 SAFF Cup, only causing more resentment from football fans and senior PFF members who were intent on seeing Hayat removed from office.

In October 2016, the FIFA executive committee indicated all is not well with the Faisal Saleh Hayat faction of the PFF. A FIFA spokesperson said "given the current situation, FIFA has been withholding development funding to PFF." [28]

In February 2017, the Lahore High Court restored Faisal Saleh Hayat as president of the Pakistan Football Federation. [29] The FIFA Executive Committee decided that the current PFF leadership – led by Faisal Saleh Hayat – would be given two years (until September 2017) to revise the PFF statutes and organise elections accordingly. [30]

2017 FIFA suspension

In July 2017, FIFA threatened to suspend the PFF's membership if it kept refusing to hand football affairs to its president-elect Faisal Saleh Hayat. [31] [32] Former coach Nasir Ismail also asked FIFA to hold fresh elections for the PFF's presidency. [33]

On 10 October 2017, FIFA suspended PFF with immediate effect due to third-party interference, which constitutes a serious violation of the FIFA statutes. [34] [35] On 13 March 2018 FIFA lifted the suspension, and Pakistan had been given the opportunity to participate in the 2018 Asian Games and the 2018 SAFF competitions. [36]

Supreme Court elections

The situation deteriorated by December 2018 as the Supreme Court of Pakistan ordered PFF elections, where Syed Ashfaq Hussain Shah was elected as the PFF chief, albeit to Fifa’s wrath for this being third-party interference again. [37]

Karachi United former captain Humza Khan was appointed as Normalization Committee for the Pakistan Football Federation in September 2019, whose task was to hold elections of the country's football governing body and bring it would bring an end to a four-year crisis that resulted in Pakistan suffering significantly in the game. [38] [39] [40] [41] However he resigned from the post in December 2020, and was replaced by interim Munir Ahmad Khan Sadhana as chairman of the PFF Normalisation Committee, after failing to hold the PFF elections by the June 2020 deadline. Its mandate was extended for six months until the end of the year. [15] In January 2021, FIFA appointed Pakistani Canadian Haroon Malik as new chairman of the Pakistan Football Federation Normalisation Committee. [42] [16]

2021 crisis and suspension

On 27 March 2021, the PFF's office was attacked and people inside held hostage by its former president, Syed Ashfaq Hussain Shah, and his group, and the ongoing women's championship was cancelled. [43] [44]

On 7 April 2021, FIFA suspended the federation with immediate effect due to third-party interference, which constitutes a serious violation of the FIFA statutes. [45] [46] The suspension was lifted on 29 June 2022. [47]

See also

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References

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  14. ↑ "PFF's first female secretary-general steps down as her contract expires". The News International. 1 January 2021.
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  16. 1 2 Staff, Editorial (20 January 2021). "Haroon Malik named new PFF NC chairman, three members replaced [Dawn]". FootballPakistan.com (FPDC). Retrieved 26 April 2024.
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  24. 1 2 Wasim, Umaid (24 July 2015). "FIFA looking at 'possible mission' to solve PFF crisis". Dawn.com. DAWN. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
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