ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) on Monday confirmed the national squad will participate in the upcoming AFC Asian Cup qualifiers, scheduled to be held later this month, hours after FIFA lifted its international suspension against the South Asian country.
FIFA hit Pakistan on Feb. 6 with a third international suspension in less than eight years after the federation rejected its electoral reforms. Following the suspension, the PFF unanimously approved FIFA’s proposed constitutional amendments in an extraordinary meeting in Lahore last Thursday.
The lifting of the suspension will enable Pakistan to take part in the AFC Asian Cup. The green shirts will kick off their AFC Asian Cup 2027 qualifying campaign with an away match against Syria on March 25. The match will be played in Al Ahsa, Saudi Arabia.
“Stephen Constantine, who previously served as the national team’s head coach from late 2023 until mid-2024 has been reappointed as the Head Coach for the match against Syria,” the PFF said.
The AFC Asian Cup qualifiers will be played on a home-and-away basis, with Pakistan placed in Group E alongside Syria, Afghanistan and Myanmar.
PAKISTAN’S FIFA SUSPENSIONS
The PFF has been mired in crisis and controversy since 2015 and this was the third time since 2017 that Pakistan has been suspended.
In June 2022, FIFA lifted the PFF’s suspension, which had been imposed due to undue third-party interference a year earlier. A group of officials led by Ashfaq Hussain Shah, which was elected by the Supreme Court in 2018 to run the PFF but was not recognized by FIFA, took over the headquarters in March 20121.
They had seized control from FIFA’s normalization committee headed by Haroon Malik. The committee had not conducted elections for the body in the 18 months since it took charge.
FIFA suspended the PFF due to the “hostile takeover” but lifted the ban after confirmation the committee had regained full control of the PFF’s premises and was in a position to manage its finances.
Pakistan was also suspended by FIFA for third party interference in 2017.
