June 23, 2008	Monday	Jamadi-us-Sani 18, 1429

LAHORE, June 22: A clause about the “no confidence motion” has been introduced in the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) constitution to have more transparency within the federation, a top official said on Sunday.

PFF secretary Ahmed Yar Lodhi said the Congress had approved the new clause in its meeting held at the FIFA House on Saturday.

“Though the earlier constitution has a procedure how to deal with a no confidence motion, it was ambiguous while the new one provides guarantee for the transparent course of action to deal with a motion,” the secretary told Dawn.

He dispelled the impression that the clause was introduced because the PFF president Faisal Saleh Hayat had been expecting a motion against him.

“We are working very hard for the betterment of the game and the first priority to introduce this clause is only to keep transparency and not to save any individual,” he said.The secretary said some Congress members some objections and showed their reservations but at the end it had been approved unanimously.

The Congress, he said, also approved Vision 2020 programme, under which Pakistan must qualify for the Olympics in next nine years and be among top 15 nations in the Asian region.

“The PFF will emphasis on its current junior programme for four years. And in next five years those juniors will be in the national team with an aim to participate in Olympics,” the secretary claimed.

Under the Vision, the PFF would also start academies at 12 districts in Faisalabad, Lahore, Peshawar, Dera Ismail Khan, Karachi, Hyderabad, Fata, Northern Areas and Islamabad.

“We have plan to launch academies from 2009 for which estimated the expenditures will be Rs10 million,” he said.

The secretary said the total deficit of the annual budget, which the Congress had also approved, was Rs20 million while Rs30.5 million was income and expenditures Rs50.5 million. The secretary said the expenditures would have been increased had the PFF succeeded in hiring the services of a foreign coach.

“We have formed a committee to be chaired by Zahir Shah to suggest whether or not the PFF should hire the services of a foreign coach.

“If the committee suggests to have a foreign coach, the PFF should have to arrange another Rs10 million to meet his expenditures. We are not worried about the finances as we raised Rs100 million last year,” he said.

However, he admitted a good number of World Cup qualifying and Asia Cup matches against Iraq, Jordan, Qatar and Asia Cup helped the PFF to raise the funds, but this year there was no major international activity at home.