LAHORE: The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has sanctioned a grant of $300,000 to help revamp the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) headquarters, a press release by the federation said on Tuesday.

“This crucial decision has been taken in the AFC Executive Committee meeting held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which was chaired by AFC president Shaikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa,” the press release said.

They PFF headquarters, called the FIFA House, and its accounts had been under control of a court-appointed administrator since August 2015 after a dispute broke in the federation ahead of its presidential election in June that year.

But after a division bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) upheld Faisal Saleh Hayat’s election on February 28, the administrator relinquished control to the PFF body on the next day.

Following the LHC’s decision, FIFA lifted the ban it imposed on Pakistan for, ‘government interference’, on March 16.

Hayat’s body took the control of the FIFA House but it claimed the office was not in working order as many things were missing. It had written a letter to the AFC requesting for a grant.

“The AFC has sanctioned US $300,000 on PFF’s request for the repair, refurbishing and reconstruction of the PFF headquarters, which was badly effected by illegal occupants during their three-years stay,” the press release further added.

The PFF said AFC approved another ‘infrastructure project’ within the current cycle.

Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2018