March 14, 2007	Wednesday	Safar 24, 1428

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

LAHORE, March 13: President Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) has claimed that all rules and regulations of the FIFA were strictly followed while replacing the ex-PFF secretary Arshad Khan Lodhi with a salaried secretary through a constitutional amendment on March 3.

In an exclusive interview with Dawn, Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat explained that the change was necessitated as the FIFA had instructed all its member countries to appoint a paid secretary instead of retaining one on honorary basis.

The president disclosed that besides the secretary, honorary treasurer Irfan Gohar had also been removed from his post. “However, no paid treasurer would be appointed as the PFF has a director finance already in its ranks,” he said.

The PFF held a special Congress meeting at Lahore to amend its constitution to incorporate the clause of paid secretary, instructing Arshad to leave after the amendment was approved. Faisal claimed that no FIFA rule forbids PFF to take a decision on one date and implement it on another and, therefore, Arshad will have to leave after the amendment.

A FIFA document obtained by Dawn, however, reveals the international governing body did not have this practice before. It says: "Article 20: Enforcement - the regulations governing the application of the status were adopted by the extraordinary FIFA Congress in Doha on 19 October, 2003 and will come into force on January 1, 2004.""We have been delaying the amendment for the last one year only to complete four years with the same set up but now all member countries of FIFA have appointed paid secretaries, so we have to do it also," Faisal added.

He pointed out that the PFF had decided to change the name of the post of Director Technical to Chief Operating Officer. “Pervez Saeed Mir has been appointed as COO from April 1.”

Pervez would fill the post which was rendered vacant by Col. (retd.) Mujahid Tareen several months ago. "Mujahid did a lot of work for the PFF and I hope Pervez will continue it," he said.

Faisal, stressed that despite having limited resources he was planning to hire at least two foreign coaches for senior and juniors teams to raise formidable teams for the international competitions.

He remarked that the Prime Minister of Pakistan would help the PFF with an amount of Rs 6 or 7 million to hire foreign coaches. He admitted better coaching at junior level was much more necessary compared to the guidance at the senior level to meet the future challenges.

He specified that the visit of FIFA president Joseph S Blatter to Pakistan on March 26 and 27 would further boost football activity in the country.

The PFF chief replied in negative when asked if he had he any plans to make the accounts of the federation public. "The PFF Congress is based on elected persons and we have been keeping it informed about all income and expenditures and there is no need to publish the accounts on the website for common public," he said.

The PFF president, however, agreed that the access to information by common people about all affairs of the federation would increase its creditability.

Faisal admitted, the provincial football associations were not moving fast and the PFF had decided to help them with financial aid to put them on track. He said the PFF had generated US$ 150,000 by selling TV rights of the ongoing three Bejing Olympics qualifiers against Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait.