Pakistan: Football's world governing body FIFA in April suspended the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) with immediate effect due to third-party interference. It confirmed the suspension on May 19. Irked by this decision, veteran pacer Shoaib Akhtar took to Twitter to speak up against the alleged "mismanagement" in the PFF.
Akhtar wrote: "A sad news which went unnoticed & nobody talking about it. FIFA, on 19th May banned Pakistan Football Federation due to “undue third-party interference”. Now Pakistan's national and club teams will not be eligible to take part in international competitions. Horrible management."
FIFA had issued a statement on its website stating, "The situation was prompted by the recent hostile takeover of the PFF headquarters in Lahore by a group of protestors and an alleged decision by certain individuals to remove the FIFA-appointed normalisation committee of the PFF led by Haroon Malik and to hand over the leadership of the PFF to Syed Ashfaq Hussain Shah."
The PFF office was attacked on March 27 this year and people inside held hostage by its former president, Syed Ashfaq Hussain Shah, and his group.
The world governing body added that a warning letter had been issued before the action was taken.
FIFA said its order would only be revoked if full control of the PFF is given back to Haroon Malik.
"This suspension will only be lifted once FIFA has received confirmation from the normalisation committee of the PFF that PFF's premises, accounts, administration and communication channels are again under its full control and it can continue to carry out its mandate without further hindrance."