Karachi: The former FIFA development official, Mohsen Gilani, the seventeenth president of the Pakistani Football Association (PFF), was elected after a six -year stop.
In the second round of the elections, Gilani obtained a simple majority by obtaining 13 votes, where he defeated his closest rival, Taha Elizai of the Karachi United football club, who won 11 votes.
Gilani brings extensive experience from his term in FIFA, where he worked on many football development projects throughout the region.
These elections represent a great milestone for Pakistani football. For more than a decade, PFF remained soaked in controversy, internal divisions, and frequent foreign intervention.
FIFA interfered on multiple occasions, with three separate normalization committees to submit the system to the union. I have left years of instability, legal quarrels, and administrative forgetfulness of Pakistani football that suffers from regional and international competition lines.
The successful elections of the permanent ruling body indicate a move towards a more stable leadership and independent rule.
The new leadership is facing great challenges, including activating local football competitions, launching a long -standing league, and improving the performance of national teams. This comes in a decisive time, with the ASAN Asian 2027 qualifiers currently on the current.
Earlier this month, the ruling body has postponed the executive committee elections, which was already scheduled for May 20 due to regional tensions and inevitable logistical challenges.
It was announced via a message from the Secretary -General of the Chargé d’Affairs of Muhammad Shahid Niyaz Khakhar to the members of Congress on May 14. The message pointed to the escalation of tensions between Pakistan and India as a major disorder that affected the travel plans for the main international observers from FIFA and Asian reproductive (AFC).
Their presence is considered necessary to ensure transparency and credibility in the electoral process. These conditions also caused logistical and administrative difficulties in organizing the extraordinary conference PFF.