Islamabad: International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) has suspended the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) with immediate effect for failing to adopt a revision of the PFF constitution and pave the way to fair elections from the PFF congress.
FIFA has stated that the PFF suspension would only be lifted if the PFF Congress approved and adopted the amended and revised version of the PFF Constitution, which it stated has been presented by FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
In a statement issued Thursday, FIFA said, “The PFF has been suspended with immediate effect due to its failure to adopt a version of the PFF constitution that would ensure truly fair and democratic elections and thereby fulfill its obligation as mandated by FIFA as part of the ongoing normalization process of PFF.
“The suspension will only be lifted subject to the PFF Congress approving the version of the PFF Constitution presented by FIFA and the AFC”, it added.
The suspension of PFF by FIFA is a major setback to the country’s prospects of representing the country and playing at the international arena. It also exposed the persistent issues, problems and loopholes that exist in the PFF and which have been deliberately ignored by the government and the sports ministry.
Haroon Malik, the chairman of the PFF Normalization Coordination appointed by FIFA, had addressed the risk of suspension before the National Assembly Standing Committee of Inter-Provincial Coordination and had called on the committee to address the matter on priority, and call on the PFF congress to approve and adopt the constitutional amendments proposed by FIFA and the AFC.
However, the matter was kept on the back burner by the committee, and after the PFF Congress rejected the constitutional amendments, FIFA announced the suspension of PFF.
This has added more pressure on the PFF congress to consider and accept FIFA’s demands.
It is pertinent to note that the FIFA proposed revision of the PFF Constitution pertains primarily to the eligibility and candidacy of the president. At the moment, PFF is criticised for having political appointments done for the president.
On the other hand, FIFA had proposed revisions to the constitution and gave PFF a deadline of February 15 to adopt them in its constitution and conduct elections for the president. But, after the PFF congress rejected the proposed amendments, the overall process is on hold.
This is the third time since 2015 that it has faced suspension by the global football body for failing to inject transparency in its process of elections and appointment of the top position of president.
