KARACHI: When the AFC Elections are held in April, Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) president Faisal Saleh Hayat will be contesting for the vice-president seat from Asia’s South Zone.

Asia’s football governing body split the former Central-South Zone into two separates zones in its Extraordinary Congress in January, thus making five distinct zones in the region.

And Hayat will be contesting his All India Football Federation (AIFF) counterpart Praful Patel to be elected upon one of five vice-president seats in the AFC. So what does he aim to do as the head of the South Zone?

PFF president to contest AFC vice-presidency elections for South Zone

“The first aim is to mobilise the 1.5 billion population of the region and make the region’s football fans, fans of South Asian football,” Hayat told Dawn in an exclusive interview from Lahore on Thursday.

“South Asia has huge potential for the game and if I were to be elected the AFC South Zone vice-president [at the polls in Manama, Bahrain on April 30], I would be looking to help the region realise its potential.”

His election rival Patel has said that the glitzy Indian Super League (ISL), which was launched last year, is a tournament for South Asia with numerous players from the region taking part in the event.

Hayat, who is also standing for his seat in the AFC Executive Committee, however said that the ISL doesn’t truly have representation from the region.

“The SAFF Championship is the marquee tournament of the region,” he added. “There are plans to launch the SAFF Club Championship which aims to see the national champions of all the members take part.

“That will certainly boost the region’s football as a whole and attract fans. It will help in more regional cooperation between the countries to help grow football as a whole. In my position as AFC vice-president [if elected], I’ll make sure we launch the event.

“It will help football compete with cricket as the region’s top sport.”

The idea of the SAFF Club Championship was initiated in 2011 but the tournament is yet to be held although SAFF president Kazi Salahuddin told Dawn last year he plans to hold the inaugural edition in 2015.

Hayat said in his position in the AFC ExCo, he had tried to get “maximum benefit for Pakistan football” and said it was imperative for the country to have that position at AFC’s top table.

“I’ve been part of the AFC ExCo for the last four year in which our football has seen exponential growth,” Hayat said referring to Pakistan moving to 170th place in the FIFA rankings released on Thursday — three places above arch-rivals India.

Hayat stressed Pakistan football needed further support from the government.

“The government needs to play a major role in improving the standing of the game here,” he said. “We need more financial and infrastructural support.”

NO FIFA ACTION ON PAHANG?

Speaking hours before Pakistan were to take on Yemen in the first leg of their first-round 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifier in Doha, Hayat stressed the PFF would be taking up a case against Malaysian club Pahang FA for not releasing captain Zesh Rehman for the game.

Pahang refused to let go of the central defender who played in their goalless draw against Global FC on Wednesday. “We’ve written to FIFA,” Hayat said. “The clubs are bound to release the players as this is a FIFA event.”

Confusion reigns, however on what would be the result of PFF’s appeal with FIFA saying that Pahang weren’t obligated to release the player as the match was outside their international match calendar.

“[The] AFC confirmed the format and calendar for the first round of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifiers on dates that are outside the international match calendar [with dates in the month of March slated from 23rd to 31st],” a FIFA spokesman told Dawn on Thursday.

“As stated in the Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players it is not compulsory to release players outside an international window or outside the final competitions.”

Despite that, Hayat was keen on waiting for FIFA’s reply to the PFF. “I still hold that Pahang should’ve released Zesh as this is a qualifier of a FIFA event.”

The PFF supremo, however, was confident of Pakistan’s chances in the tie despite Zesh’s absence with the former Fulham defender also unlikely to be released for the second leg in Lahore on Tuesday.

“After a very long time, we’ve good three good players in every position,” Hayat said. “We’ve got able replacements who can cope with his absence and I believe we have a good chance of making it through to the second round.”

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2015

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