KARACHI: Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) president Faisal Saleh Hayat on Saturday submitted his nomination papers for the upcoming elections in June as he seeks a fourth term in office.

In his presidency manifesto, Hayat who was first elected as PFF chief in 2003 looked back on a decade of “phenomenal development of football in Pakistan”.

“The last decade tells the story of massive development in football of Pakistan. Football saw phenomenal changes from the day I was elected as the president PFF back in 2003,” said Faisal in his manifesto which was released by the PFF on Saturday.

He cited the launch of a “structural” Pakistan Premier Football League (PPFL), the second-division Pakistan Football Federation League (PFFL), the Women’s Championship and the National Challenge Cup as his achievements while adding PFF “held numerous courses and programmes for grassroots and women’s football”.

Hayat also looked back at bringing international teams to the country in the wake of the attack of the Sri Lankan cricket team in 2009 to “portray a soft image of the country” along with last year’s SAFF Women’s Championship in Islamabad last year.

The SAFF Women’s Championship also saw AFC president Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa come to the country and addressing the PFF Congress, which he says was a “historic moment as it was for the first time that he was addressing any congress of an AFC member association”.

He added that during his time as PFF chief, Pakistan also got eight Goal projects by FIFA while local players were picked by clubs abroad.

“The PFF was also awarded the AFC Aspiring Nation in 2013 with the award being yet another feather in the crown of PFF and an endorsement by the AFC for the tremendous job done by the PFF,” Hayat added in the statement.

Looking forward, he said he will continue his “rigorous efforts” to boost the game, adding that the PFF elections will fulfil the criteria laid down in the PFF constitution in accordance with the FIFA and AFC statutes.

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2015

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