FIFA has suspended the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) after its former leadership stormed the organisation’s headquarters and forcibly removed a Normalisation Committee established to run its affairs.
World football’s governing body has also suspended the Chadian Football Federation (FTFA) for Government interference.
According to reports, former PFF President Syed Ashfaq Hussain Shah led an attack on the association’s headquarters in Lahore last month, demanding Normalisation Committee chairman Haroon Malik hand over accounts and cheque books.
Malik told Al Jazeera a “mob” organised by Shah had “barged into my office and asked me to hand over charge of the PFF and all bank accounts”.
The dispute comes amid continued delays to the PFF elections, which has been the source of tension within football in Pakistan for months.
“They restrained me and locked the doors, shouting and telling me to hand over the PFF to them,” Malik said.
“They were furious about not conducting the elections.
“I told them I will provide a roadmap and we should discuss it in a civilised manner.
“FIFA takes these matters strongly and will likely ban Pakistan which means we won’t have functional football for five years.
“This will just kill football in the country.”
Shah, who handed over control of the PFF to the Normalisation Committee in September 2019, disputed Malik’s version of events.
“We went to meet him and handed him the letter that we have got a mandate from the PFF Congress and Executive Committee to reassume the PFF charge,” he reportedly said.
“I told him that we had given Normalisation Committee the charge in good faith in September 2019 with the hope that it would hold the PFF elections in a fair and transparent way within the FIFA mandate.
“But it did not do anything in the past 18 months.”
In a statement, FIFA said it had suspended the PFF “due to third-party interference, which constitutes a serious violation of the FIFA statutes”.
“This situation was prompted by the recent hostile takeover of the PFF headquarters in Lahore by a group of protestors and an alleged decision by certain individuals to remove the FIFA-appointed normalisation committee of the PFF led by Haroon Malik and to hand over the leadership of the PFF to Syed Ashfaq Hussain Shah,” FIFA said.
“FIFA issued a letter warning that, should the illegitimate occupation of the PFF headquarters not be lifted and the office bearers recognised by FIFA not be permitted free access to the building to carry out their mandate, the matter would be immediately submitted to the Bureau of the Council for decision.”
The FTFA has been suspended after the Chad Government dissolved the organisation, a clear violation of FIFA’s rules that prohibit interference in its Member Associations.
The crisis in the sport in the country led to the Confederation of African Football disqualifying Chad from the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
