LAHORE, March 26: While Pakistan has hardly shown its keenness in promoting women soccer, FIFA has reduced the funds for men’s activities and has increased the grant for women and youth from its annual grant of $250,000 to the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF).
According to details of allocation of funds for 2005 and 2006 obtained by Dawn, the funds for men’s competitions have been decreased to $50,000 each for 2005 and 2006 from $82,116 allocated for year 2004.
Since the funds have been reduced PFF will cover the shortfall for organizing national league in next two years by acquiring sponsorships. Last year, PFF organized the league meeting all the expenditures utilising the FIFA annual grant.
Emphasising on youth soccer, FIFA has increased the budget to $69,682 for 2005 and $70,000 for 2006 from $56,282 allocated for 2004.
The amount for women’s activities has been enhanced to $25,000 each for years 2005 and 2006 from $10,434 allocated in 2004.
However, PFF so far has failed to use funds for women as there was hardly any activity during 2004. It was only in 2005 that PFF conducted couple of courses and matches for women. While FIFA has increased the funds for women, surprisingly PFF did not seem to be serious as the matches were held in an unimpressive manner and as a formality.
PFF is yet to form its women’s wing to streamline the affairs, therefore, there are apprehensions that the allocated amount for women may not be utilised as it should be.
The allocation of funds for planning and administration has been raised remarkably to $41,422 in 2005 and to $50,000 in 2006 from $27,976 in 2004.
PFF’s budget for administration had been increased considerably after it appointed four directors as instructed by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), besides increasing the strength of support staff.
Although football lacks media coverage in Pakistan despite huge following, a meagre amount of $2,000 has been allocated for marketing and media.
An amount of $65,000 has been allocated for the development of the infrastructure for 2005 and only $10,000 for 2006. There was no such allocation made in 2004.
There has been no allocation of funds for medical for 2005 and 2006, whereas it was $1740 in 2004. No allocation has been made for the technical wing for 2005 which will be $13,000 in 2006. An amount of $6,992 had been earmarked for technical wing in 2004.
PFF did not use the amount of $32,582 in 2004 from the annual grant which will now be used this year, making it total of $282,582 available for 2005 activities.
The $3,478 has been allocated for referees for this year as was done the previous year.
The four-year FIFA annual programme for all its affiliated countries started in the year 2003 and will finish in 2006. The international body will then decide whether it should continue the programme or how much amount should be provided as annual grant.
Every FIFA affiliated country will get $one million in four years under this programme. Apart from the annual grant, FIFA has provided $400,000 to PFF for the Goal Project. The construction work at the site opposite to Punjab Stadium is in progress.
