Former Chelsea and Real Madrid striker Nicolas Anelka on Tuesday offered to visit Pakistan again in future to train aspiring footballers and help the Beautiful Game grow in the country.

Anelka made the remarks during a press conference in Islamabad, where he was to meet PFF's newly elected president Syed Ashfaq Shah.

"We have to speak to the federation but if they ask me to come back, I'm free, I'll come back again and again," said the Frenchman. "I played for 20 years and now it's time to give to the kids who are learning."

The PFF president, who assumed the top football office in the country by virtue of his controversial victory over his predecessor — Faisal Saleh Hayat — also sat alongside Anelka during the press conference in the capital.

Shah urged TouchSky Group, the company responsible for bringing Anelka as well as Ricardo Kaka and Luis Figo to Pakistan, to up its efforts to boost football in Pakistan.

"I have already told the TSG group that to bring a soccer player and then a big gap is not enough," the PFF president said. "Until and unless there is a continuity, we cannot do it. We have been working on it for the last two months hopefully we will come up with something that is in the interest of Pakistan and Pakistan football. That's our main objective. God willing, you will see football [grow] in Pakistan."

While the arrival of football superstars is appreciated in Pakistan, the purpose and long-term plan of the visits remain hazy at best.

When TouchSky Group CEO Ahmer Kunwar was asked to elaborate what the group wants to achieve, he said: "We have brought these icons here because local players here need motivation and confidence.

"We cannot suddenly open football schools or academies because there is not much infrastructure here but we are now working with a few stakeholders in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad, where these stars will collaborate and conduct some training in future."

Since being voted out, Hayat, the former PFF chief has reportedly become the vice-president of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Ashfaq today urged Hayat to use his position for the better of Pakistan football.

"Faisal sahab if you are a Pakistani and have made it to the AFC, then fight for the right of Pakistan," he said. I do not want to indulge in mudslinging. I request him to use his position to work for the future of Pakistan football."

Ashfaq's election has been mired in controversy as while he has the local courts' backing, FIFA had at one point sided with Hayat and even suspended the PFF for what it said was "undue third-party interference".

The new PFF chief, however, dispelled the notion that FIFA, football's global governing body, has a problem with the way he assumed the top office.

"FIFA has never sent us a letter that talks about derecognition or anything. FIFA and AFC have only seen one face of Pakistan as only one person was occupying the office for the last 15 and a half years. I have been here for just two months.

"The law of the land prevails over anything. I cannot sit here and violate the law. Our election has two phases. The one in which Faisal Saleh Hayat won he accepts it, the one he lost, he does not accept. I did not conduct this election. It was conducted on Supreme Court of Pakistan's directives and within its building.

"They are stuck on one point, which is third-party intervention. If there were any third party intervention then Amir Dogar would have been the PFF president. He isn't because the government did not interfere."