The Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) is the national governing body of association football in Pakistan. It is a member of FIFA, the international governing body of football and affiliated to the Asian Football Confederation and South Asian Football Federation. The federation was founded in 1947, it also manages the futsal and beach soccer national teams.
History
Upon Pakistan's independence in 1947, both East and West wings of the country inherited the football infrastructure of the British Raj. The need for establishing a nationwide football association to govern the game properly was urgent, since India had inherited the erstwhile Calcutta-based Indian Football Association and the All-India Football Federation (AIFF).
Thus, on 5 December 1947 the Pakistan Football Federation was created. Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Pakistan's first Governor-General, became the patron-in-chief, and in 1948, the PFF became affiliated with FIFA. It was also one of the founding members of the Asian Football Confederation in 1954. PFF organized the first National Football Championship from 28 May to 5 June 1948 in Karachi, with Sindh Red beating Sindh Blue in the final.
However, the game could not develop as smoothly as it should have. Pakistan's participation in international competitions has not been regular. The standard achieved in the early 1950s could not be maintained because of lack of organization of the game.
Competitions
Men's senior
Pakistan Premier League
PFF League B Division
PFF National Challenge Cup
Pakistan Futsal League
Geo Super Football League – defunct
KASB Premier League – defunct
Quaid-e-Azam International Cup – defunct
Women's senior
National Women Football Championship
National Women Inter Club Football Championship
National teams
Men
Pakistan national football team
Pakistan national under-23 football team
Pakistan national under-20 football team
Pakistan national under-17 football team
Pakistan national beach soccer team
Pakistan national futsal team
Women
Pakistan women's national football team
Pakistan women's national under-20 football team
Pakistan women's national under-17 football team
Affiliated federations
There are currently 7 provincial associations affiliated with the PFF
Islamabad Football Association
Punjab Football Association
Sindh Football Association
Balochistan Football Association
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Football Association
Azad Kashmir Football Association
Gilgit-Baltistan Football Association
Board of directors
The following are on the board of the directors at the PFF.
Past office bearers
Presidents
Secretary-Generals
Criticism
Over the past several years, the Pakistan Football Federation has been accused of several corruption scandals and incompetence in running the day-to-day footballing activities in Pakistan. Local media outlets have described the current situation of the PFF as a "horror show".
Faisal Saleh Hayat incompetence
In August 2003, the PFF became under new management, as the politician Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat took over, and turned around the fortunes of Pakistani football. He has been described as a "feudal lord of Pakistani football". During his controversial tenure, Pakistan's FIFA ranking dropped from 168 in 2003 to 201 in 2017. Despite his lackluster results, Hayat continues to hold on to his position as president. Hayat himself in also the middle of various corruption allegations involving PFF and a legal battle at Lahore High Court with a warring faction intent on seeing him removed from office.
The top division of the Pakistan Premier League remained suspended because the crisis created due to his actions, along with the men's senior team, who remained suspended from any international competition since March 2015, and FIFA rankings of the senior team had slumped.
2015 crisis
Just before PPF elections in 2015, two groups were formed within the federation and there infighting in the federation due to which FIFA took notice and told the federation to solve the matters, being in contact with AFC.