LAHORE - Engineer Ashfaq Hussain, who claims to be President of Pakistan Football Federation (PFF), has alleged that former FIFA Development Officer Mohsin Gilani is the main reason behind the football turmoil in Pakistan.
Addressing a press conference along with Sardar Naveed Haider here at the Football House, Ashfaq Hussain said: “Mohsin Gilani has been interfering in the affairs of the PFF and using the officials of the normalization committee for his own gains. He has been engaged in creating hindrances since day one of inception of the NCs for his personal purposes. Due to his involvement in the NCs matters, the FIFA-installed committees couldn’t focus on their main agenda of conducting free and fair elections in time.”
Sardar Naveed also claimed that due to continuous involvement of Mohsin Gilani in the NCs matters, they couldn’t hold the elections timely rather remained busy in taking steps against the FIFA-given agenda. He also accused former PFF Director Finance Adnan of forgery and preparing fake documents. Both Ashfaq and Sardar also demanded AFC President Sheikh Salman of taking stern action against Mohsin, who was involved in destroying Pakistan football and future of Pakistani footballers.
Ashfaq said Pakistan football is already under suspension and nothing bad can happen, if it’s banned further. “The normalization committee does not seem serious about holding elections and its current chairman seems only interested in presiding over the PFF office as its head. The PFF is already suspended and it will not make any difference even if it is banned,” he added.
Ashfaq rejected rumours regarding their sincerity for Pakistan football, saying, “I have never wanted a position in football. Rather I am acting upon the insistence of friends who have put responsibility on me. Pakistan football has gone to such a low ebb that there is no room to go further below.”
He recalled the moments when he handed the PFF office to first NC head Humza Khan saying, “We welcomed Humza Khan as first head of normalization committee and handed over FIFA House to him on September 26, 2019 with hopes that he would conduct PFF elections withing the given time frame but instead of working on the FIFA-given agenda, they remained busy in achieving personal goals without thinking about future of Pakistan football and footballers.”
Sardar Naveed claimed that when the Humza-led NC was handed over the charge of PFF House, there were Rs 165 million in PFF accounts but then whatever happened to Pakistan football was backed and manipulated by Mohsin Gilani, who used his influence in the FIFA to bring in Humza Khan as NC head. In fact, he was dreaming of becoming a president of the PFF.”
Meanwhile football sources have expressed that the leaked audio conversations of Mohsin Gillani might have very serious consequences on his future football dreams. FIFA’s meeting on the current situation of Pakistan football is to be held next week in which important decisions regarding the ban on Pakistan football are expected.