Senate Body Discusses Football Affairs

The Senate Special Committee on the Promotion and Development of Football in the Country on Friday discussed about the elections of Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) so that the game can get back on track

ISLAMABAD, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 16th Sep, 2022 ) :The Senate Special Committee on the Promotion and Development of Football in the Country on Friday discussed about the elections of Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) so that the game can get back on track.

Chaired by Senator Faisal Saleem Rahman as Convener, the meeting discussed the matter regarding election of President of Pakistan Football Federation.

DG Pakistan Sports Board Col (R) Muhammad Asif Zaman informed the Committee that after the recent episode of Syed Ashfaq Shah, FIFA has formed a four members Normalization Committee which was currently scrutinizing the football clubs across the country and date for the election would be decided once it was completed.

He said the last episode of Syed Ashfaq Shah resulted in ban on PFF and things went out of control. "But the Ministry has formulated a 'New Sports Policy' and after it's implementation, players will not be able to leave the country without prior approval from the Ministry of Interior and Foreign Affairs", he told.

The Convener of the Committee directed the Ministry to conduct inquiry of the matter and present report before the Committee at earliest.

Senator Afnan Ullah Khan inquired that in how much period the scrutiny would be completed. He also suggested that provincial sports board should also be made as part of the process.

Saud Hashimi, member of Normalization Committee informed that it would be completed in four months.

The Committee was apprised by PSB regarding the efforts for promotion and development of football in the country. The DG PSB told the Committee that the total funds allocated to PFF out of total budget for sports activities from last 20 years was around Rs.

137,261,950 and the government of Pakistan had made 32 football arenas in all the provinces and 250 more sports arenas were in the pipeline and football grounds have been made part of these projects.

In addition, representatives of provincial sports department informed that in Punjab, there were 69 football grounds and total budget for football was around Rs 200 million, however, there were 25 football grounds in Sindh while 97 in Balochistan. Sindh spends around 10 to 20 pc of their annual sports budget on football.

Senator Faisal Saleem Rahman sought details of football grounds, located in KP, from KP Sports Department in the next meeting.

Deliberating on the issues faced by Pakistan Football Federation, member of the Committee Mubashir Rafiq raised the recent incident of Pakistani Futsal players who went to participate in Futsal World Cup but deported back from Dubai airport because they were planning to flee away from Argentina.

The Convener opined that Inter school Sports competition should also be started so that the children of tender age could take keen interest in football and for this purpose invited the education Ministry and Higher Education Commission (HEC) in the next meeting.

The Convener also lauded Pakistan Women Football team over their victory against Maldives in SAFF Women's Championship.

The meeting was attended by Senators Syed Muhammad Sabir Shah, Khalida Ateeb, Afnan Ullah Khan, Ahmed Kakar, VP, QCCI, Mubashir Rafiq, Anas Trunkwala, Owner, World Group, Secretary IPC Ahmad Hanif, DG PSB and other concerned officers.