The Pakistan soccer staff pictured throughout a match. — PFF/File
KARACHI: The Pakistan males’s nationwide soccer staff has been formally dominated out of the AFC Asian Cup Saudi Arabia 2027 qualifiers following the suspension of the Pakistan Soccer Federation (PFF) by international soccer physique Fifa.
In an announcement on Monday, the PFF confirmed its exclusion from the event, saying, “The Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) regrets to inform the football fraternity that the national team will be unable to participate in the final round of the AFC Asian Cup Saudi Arabia 2027 Qualifiers.”
The Asian Soccer Confederation (AFC) had beforehand warned that if FIFA’s suspension of the PFF was not lifted by March 4 — three weeks earlier than Pakistan’s first qualifier in opposition to Syria — the staff can be thought-about withdrawn from the competitors.
In a letter addressed to the PFF’s Normalisation Committee, the AFC emphasised the urgency of resolving the suspension problem.
“With a purpose to have enough time to organize for the upcoming first match of AC27QFR on 25 March 2025 with all Competitors necessities… the PFF’s males’s nationwide staff will likely be thought-about to have withdrawn from the Competitors ought to the suspension on PFF not be lifted by Tuesday, 4 March 2025,” the letter said.
Pakistan was positioned in Group E alongside Syria, Myanmar, and Afghanistan, with its opening match scheduled for March 25.
The FIFA suspension, imposed on February 6, stripped the PFF of all membership rights, stopping Pakistan’s groups and golf equipment from participating in worldwide competitions.
Including to the disaster, the Pakistan ladies’s nationwide soccer staff has already pulled out of the 2026 AFC Ladies’s Asian Cup qualifiers, scheduled to start in late June.
Fifa extends mandate of PFF NC
Individually, the Fifa has prolonged the mandate of the PFF Normalisation Committee till July 31, 2025.
Saud Azim Hashimi, a member of the present Fifa-appointed PFF Normalisation Committee, has been appointed as the brand new chairman by Fifa beginning February sixteenth, 2025.
Saud Hashimi will take cost after current chairman Haroon Malik’s tenure ends on February 15, 2025, whereas the opposite two members, Muhammad Shahid Niaz Khokhar and Haris Azmat will proceed to serve on the committee.
