PFF normalisation committee expedites club scrutiny

LAHORE: Following some pressure from FIFA, Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) Normalisation Committee has expedited the clubs scrutiny process and according to sources by Sunday (tomorrow) scrutiny in 95 districts will be completed out of 142 districts.

“The process is conducted on Saturday and Sunday and in the next two days scrutiny in 95 districts will be completed,” a well-placed source told The News. The source said that by the end of January the entire scrutiny process will be completed and by February-end elections in the districts will be conducted.

The source, however, did not say when the elections at the provincial level will be conducted. The source also confirmed that no legal suit against the scrutiny process has been filed anywhere in the country.

“No there is no such legal issue and the process is going smoothly,” the source said. FIFA has given the PFF NC until March 15 to hold the PFF elections. And it appears that NC will not be able to complete the process by then and it may seek further extension.

FIFA installed NC in September 2019 to conduct the PFF elections. However, NC failed to meet several deadlines and this correspondent understands that the world body has now strictly directed NC that it should complete the electoral process by March 15.

This correspondent has also learnt that NC’s chairman Haroon Malik is on one-month leave and is in Canada these days.

Meanwhile, sources said that NC had planned to hold the national team camp in Saudi Arabia by the middle of January for the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers March matches against Jordan but so far no development has been made in that direction.

Sources said that in the light of the MoU which NC has signed with the Saudi Arabia Football Federation (SAFF) NC wanted its team to play a few practice matches against Saudi Arabia’s different clubs. Sources said that English coach Stephen Constantine is likely to handle the team during the camp.