February 28 – Pakistan’s return to world football could be imminent after football officials approved the federation’s new constitution.
Following Thursday’s extraordinary meeting of the congress of the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF), the football governing body passed the constitutional amendments that will pave the wave for presidential elections. Article 38 of the PFF constitution will allow anyone who has played an active role in football management and organisation at any level to run for the top job.
In the past, the article restricted the field of candidates to members of the congress or PFF, AFC or FIFA, meeting resistance from local stakeholders.
“I’ve never seen the PFF Congress so united, driven towards change. Among the members, there was a realisation of the time lost and Pakistani football suffered so much,” AFC Deputy General Secretary Vahid Kardany told local newspaper Dawn. “But soon, we will have an elected PFF which can drive the development of the sport in the country.”
Pakistani football has long been sidelined from the world game because of a dysfunctional PFF. In 2019, FIFA established a normalisation committee in the country, which quickly became the subject of warring factions in the game.
The FIFA bureau will be in a position to lift Pakistan’s suspension from the game with Pakistan due to open their qualifying campaign for the 2027 Asian Cp against Syria in March. The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) had previously threatened that Pakistan would be withdrawn from the qualifiers if the PFF’s suspension was not lifted by early March.
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