KARACHI: With the row over the participation of the departments resolved, the Pakistan Football Federation Normalisation Committee has called an Extraordinary Congress on Jan 23 to make the amendments to the constitution ahead of the long-awaited elections of the country’s football governing body.

The last attempt to hold the Extraordinary Congress was made on Nov 19 but it was eventually postponed after four departments raised objections for their exclusion from the meeting.

Then, officials of FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation had travelled to Lahore for the meeting but this month’s Congress would be an online event.

“The PFF Extraordinary Congress will be held on January 23,” the PFF NC said in a short statement. “It will be held online.”

FIFA, which appointed the NC back in September 2019, is pushing for amendments in the PFF Constitution before the elections are held, most notably regarding the candidacy of the PFF president.

It is being proposed that an open election is held where any football official or ex-player nominated by a single Congress member is eligible to run.

The push to get it done and over with is highlighted in the letter the global football body sent to PFF NC chairman Haroon Malik last year when extending the mandate of the NC till Feb 15.

“… the Bureau [of the FIFA Council] took note that, on 19 November 2024, just before the first Extraordinary PFF Congress could begin, the representatives of six departmental associations that had been excluded from the PFF Congress for failing to comply with statutory requirements requested to participate and vote at the congress,” it stated.

“To ensure due process and to avoid risking the rejection of the proposed constitutional changes, it was decided not to allow their participation and, instead, that their request for inclusion would be referred to the PFF’s internal bodies for appeal, in accordance with the established procedure.

“As a result, the members of the PFF were informed on the same day that the PFF Congress would reconvene before 15 Dece­mber 2024 to adopt the new PFF Constitution once the appeal had been resolved.”

The decision into the appeals was announced this week with four departments namely Pakistan Navy, Pakistan Air Force, Pakistan Police and Pakistan Railways reinstated to the Congress.

“The competent authority of PFF shall issue the invitation letters to the [four] departments for their eligibility to participate in the PFF Congress as per the PFF Constitution,” the PFF Disciplinary Committee wrote in its decision, noting that departments will abide by the PFF Constitution in the future.

The PFF Congress comprises 14 elected members, three each from the four provinces and one from Islamabad and the president of the Pakistan Football Referees Association.

Eight members are nominated by the departments with one representative from the winner of the Women’s Championship. Three women members are elected to take the quorum to 26.

Prior to the previous meeting, Congress members had also raised objection over the fact that the three women members had been nominated by Haroon, instead of coming in through an election.

Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2025