KARACHI: FIFA seems to be satisfied with the work of the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) Normalisation Committee.

Since being appointed by the global football body in September last year, the PFF Normalisation Committee has faced numerous protests from disgruntled officials, most of them having a sense of fear that their time in Pakistan football might be over.

However, the PFF Normalisation Committee has continued to work in the highly-politicised world of Pakistan football where almost everyone, from academy owners to small level tournament organisers to stadium announcers, have been claiming a stake in the county’s football governing body.

And it received further backing from FIFA on Friday when the world’s football governing body announced that the mandate of the PFF Normalisation Committee was being extended till the end of this year by which it is expected that the latter will have successfully held the PFF elections.

“The Bureau of the FIFA Council has decided on 14 May 2020 to extend the mandate of the PFF Normalisation Committee, which was due to expire on 15 June 2020, until 31 December 2020,” a FIFA spokesperson confided to Dawn via email on Friday.

FIFA appointed the Normalisation Committee to oversee the affairs of the PFF following years of turmoil in Pakistan football. The PFF Normalisation Committee did well to organise tournaments but football, like in the rest of the world, came to a halt in Pakistan due to the global coronavirus outbreak.

FIFA took note of the disruption due to the virus and

“While the PFF Normalisation Committee has made significant progress in several aspects and the PFF now has a functional administration supporting football activities, the decision has been taken in order to enable it to complete all of the tasks of its mandate, particularly in light of the general disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic in Pakistan,” the statement added.

“A road map has been agreed by the FIFA and AFC administrations and the PFF Normalisation Committee that foresees the full implementation of the latter’s mandate and includes holding an elective PFF Congress by the end of December 2020.”

In a conference call last month, PFF Normalisation Committee chairman Humza Khan said he was confident that FIFA would extend the mandate of his body.

The PFF Normalisation Committee had announced the formation of the provincial normalisation committee last month and is due to announce the district committees which will conduct the all-important task of registration and scrutiny of clubs; the first step towards the holding of elections.

Humza welcomed FIFA’s decision of extending the mandate of the PFF Normalisation Committee.

“On behalf of my fellow members and myself, I greatly appreciate FIFA having taken our request into consideration and extending the mandate,” he was quoted as saying in a PFF news release. “We also thank FIFA and AFC for continuing to repose confidence in the PFF NC, and will endeavour to do our best to fulfil the same in a timely manner.”

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2020