EDITORIAL: The Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) has announced restoration of Pakistan Football Federation’s (PFF’s) membership, suspended nearly 15 months ago due to intra-federation rivalries and wrangling over petty self-interests. That it did after receiving confirmation that its appointed Normalisation Committee (NC) for the PFF had “regained full control of PFF’s premises and was in a position to manage its finances.
” It may be recalled that Pakistan was suspended in April of last year after one of the two PFF rival factions of officials grabbed control of its headquarters from NC, claiming that the other group was unwilling to hold elections of the national football body. Elections were conducted under a Supreme Court order but not recognised by FIFA. Hence, the NC sought government support to get back control of its offices, which it gained last March, leading to FIFA Bureau Council’s decision to lift suspension, imposed in April 2021 “due to undue third-party interference.”
While some of the modalities, including fresh elections and bringing PFF constitution clauses in line with international body’s statutes, remain to be implemented, FIFA has warned that any interference in NC’s affairs could result in re-imposition of suspension. To say the least, it is sad that this should be the state of affairs in this country where football is the second-most popular sport after cricket. Its Pakistani fans keenly follow important events in other countries. And ‘Made in Pakistan’ footballs are used not only in all major international league matches, but also have been the preferred choice for the FIFA world cups in 2014 and 2018. Once again, this country has been entrusted to provide its new thermo-bonded ball called “Al-Rifa” for the FIFA World Cup in Qatar come November. Yet our own national team stands at nearly the lowest rung, at 200th position among 211 nations, in FIFA world rankings. That, of course, is not because of dearth of talent, but lack of proper official patronage. This is more than obvious from the way the affairs of PFF have been run for at least a decade.
The NC therefore will need to change the culture that allows officials to concentrate energies on seeking power and/or material gains instead of promotion of the sport and welfare of its players. The first step in that direction is to hold genuine elections, for which it has given the government an eight-month timeframe. The other equally, if not more important, is to ensure funds are not misused. FIFA’s Bureau of Council has rightly decided to keep PFF accounts frozen during this time to prevent the last reigning group from accessing them as long as the case regarding finances is being heard by a court. In the meantime, however, the NC would directly receive funding from FIFA. Besides completing its assigned tasks the NC will need to carefully monitor how the money is spent. Only a reformed PFF can wean itself away from corruption scandals and rank incompetence.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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