KARACHI: Pakistan's association with football remains blotted by a history of internal disputes among officials, governmental meddling and corruption. Despite the FIFA ban being lifted recently, there was optimism among football players and fans that the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) Normalisation Committee (NC) would usher in positive developments for the sport. Unfortunately, the situation deteriorated.

With the FIFA Men’s World Cup 2026 Qualifier against Cambodia scheduled to take place next month, on October 12 and 17, the players and support staff have not been paid for the past four months.

The players who featured in the four-nation cup in Mauritius in June, followed by the SAFF Championship in India and the recent AFC U23 Asian Cup Qualifiers in Bahrain are yet to be paid with their dues amounting to approximately Rs1 million each. When the players asked PFF to clear their payments, they were told that it would be done by mid-July. When the first deadline passed, the players were informed that the payments had been delayed till mid-August. However, the dues were not cleared even after more than a month had passed since the August deadline.

The players were not even reimbursed for travelling to different cities of Pakistan for camps. There also came a time when some of the players had to chip in to pay for their teammates’ travelling expenses in order to ensure that all of them were able to attend the camps.

“Whenever we approached the PFF about releasing payments, we were told that there was a funding issue. We were also told that the payments for Mauritius and India tour will be done by September 15 but that was also not the case,” a source familiar with the situation told GeoSuper.tv on condition of anonymity. “Recently, when the team went for AFC U23 Qualifiers to Bahrain, no meal was offered to the players at the airport since the officials told them that there was a funding issue due to an audit of PFF accounts.

It has also been learned that the squad was also not offered contracts for AFC U23 Qualifiers despite getting them in previous events. So, technically they only have agreements in writing for the Mauritius and India tours if they go on to file a case with FIFA regarding delay in salaries. Some of the diaspora players within the team also pushed the PFF to clear their dues but they were still left empty-handed. It must be noted that the delay in salaries has been a recurring issue ever since the PFF NC took charge since the dues for tournaments/matches before Mauritius were also not cleared on time.

The PFF NC did well to ensure Pakistan's participation in multiple international tournaments and friendlies, both on the men’s and women’s sides, which aided the players’ development.   Interestingly, the PFF continues to pay its permanent staff while also hiring coaches. Britain-based Shadab Iftikhar was recently appointed as coach for the Under-19 team, which begs the question as to why the ‘audit excuse’ is only for the players.

Published in The Daily National Courier, September, 20 2023

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