PFF elections: FIFA not yet aware of SC judgement

KARACHI: The world football governing body (FIFA) on Thursday said that it had not yet been officially informed about the Supreme Court decision that the election of Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) be held within a month.

“We have not been officially informed about the decision of the Supreme Court of Pakistan referred to in your message,” a FIFA spokesperson told ‘The News’ on Thursday.

“For now we can only refer you to the decision taken following the meeting of FIFA’s Associations Committee on 26 September 2018, which requested the PFF to revise its statutes in order to align them with the requirements of FIFA and the FIFA Statutes and, in parallel, carry out the scrutiny of the clubs,” the spokesperson said.

“Once these steps have been completed, elections of a new PFF executive committee shall be held in a timely manner, but at the latest by the end of March 2020. The committee further mandated the FIFA administration to elaborate a roadmap laying out the aforementioned steps and taking into account the input of the PFF,” the spokesperson said.

The FIFA official added that it would monitor the situation. The apex court on Wednesday assigned the task of holding the elections to Shoaib Shaheen, a member of Pakistan Bar Council.Several groups have started discussions to decide their candidates for the PFF’s presidency.

Sources close to Zahir Shah on Thursday confirmed that he would file his nomination papers for the purpose. Shah, former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health minister, was the candidate for the PFF presidency in 2015 but his group did not go for elections after Lahore High Court (LHC) issued a stay order.The sources said that the situation would become clear in three or four days.