The Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) Disciplinary Committee has recently levied a life ban on 22 former officials, including Syed Ashfaq Hussain Shah, Amir Dogar, and Sardar Naved Haider, for their involvement in establishing a parallel association and orchestrating a hostile takeover of the PFF offices.
In response to this development, we conducted a poll on footballer.pk and asked participants for their opinion. The three options provided were:
1 – Yes, the ban fits the crime
2 – No, the ban is too harsh
3 – PFF NC should have explored other options
We received a substantial number of responses, and the majority of the participants expressed disagreement with the PFF NC’s decision to issue a ban on the former officials. Many believe that it is not within the PFF NC’s authority to impose a lifelong ban, and have also pointed out that various offenders are missing from the list of banned officials.
Just over half of those polled on footballer.pk disagreed with the PFF NC’s decision to permanently ban former officials (60%). 40% felt PFF NC should have explored other options.
Founder of footballer.pk, Jasper Reichardt, stated:
“No, it’s not their (PFF-NC) mandate to issue lifelong bans, and various offenders are missing.”
This reflects the sentiment of many in the football community who feel that the ban may not be the most appropriate course of action.