Pakistan’s football has been controlled by Pakistan Football Federation’s (PFF) Normalisation Committee (NC) for quite some time as per a decision of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (more commonly known as FIFA).

Although football is one of Pakistan’s major outdoor games, it could not reach the same heights as cricket and hockey did. One of the reasons behind this scenario is that despite being termed the game of the masses, football has rarely got real proper patronage/support from the government.

Had the game of football got proper encouragement from the government, things might have been far better for the game as well as for Pakistan footballers.

Besides the government, the football federations of the yesteryears were equally responsible for not raising the standard of the game.

There was no proper infrastructure and no encouragement of the footballers at the grass-root level all over the country whether it was Sindh, Balochistan, Punjab, KKP or parts of the country.

Football federations in the past did little for this game and never thought of a system whereby poor footballers could get jobs in departments. Such a system could have helped the footballers get rid of financial worries and provided them mental peace which would ultimately have improved their performance.

PFF doesn’t even have a single stadium of international standard. If it has to host any international match, it asks other institutions, which is quite a disappointing thing as far as Pakistan and its football and footballers are concerned.

With a better system, Pakistan could have produced many professional footballers who could have helped Pakistan rise internationally. With an improved system Pakistan could have improved rankings and definitely Pakistan footballers could have gained international experience.

As a result of infighting and politics, things went worse and the careers of many national footballers were destroyed.

Although the PFF NC’s main role is to hold elections, it was also its duty to keep Pakistan’s football going without any hurdle which included holding of national events and ensuring Pakistan’s participation in international events.

PFF NC has been able to come up to the expectations of the football’s world governing body by organising and supervising national and international events in Pakistan: FIFA World Cup Qualifiers Round 1 and Round 2, SAFF Championship 2023, Six-Nation Cup 2023, U-19 SAFF Championship 2023, U-16 SAFF Championship 2023, SAFF Women Championship 2022, 4-Nation Women Tournament 2023, Women Olympics Qualifiers, 4-Nation Tournament in Saudi Arabia and 6-Nation Tournament in Tajikistan. The national/domestic events include Challenge Cup 2023 and Women’s Club Championship 2024.

The PFF NC has been controlling the PFF affairs since 2021. The Haroon Malik-led PFF NC started its tenure from 1st June 2022, which was due till June 15, 2023.

They got their first extension on June 15, 2023. They got another extension on March 15, 2024, which will end in December 2024, in which Haroon Malik-led PFF NC has promised to complete its real mandate that is to hold the PFF elections in a free and fair manner.

The main thing that has been done by the PFF Normalisation Committee is to introduce FIFA’s Connect Programme, under which all the clubs of the country have been registered in order to discourage bogus and ghost club and encourage real and genuine clubs, properly guided, facilitated and helped by the PFF NC’s professional team.

Not only did they establish helping centers to promote FIFA Connect Programme and its registration but also introduced the van service that was provided to the clubs of far-flung areas of the country, so that they may also get registered and get their due rights.

Besides this, club matches were also organised to confirm their existence in order to promote only genuine clubs.

After hectic efforts of the PFF NC, the district elections of the football federation have been completed and now the preparations are in full swing to conduct the provincial elections.