Dirty game: Hayat accused of embezzling football funds

Salman Butt says he will challenge rejection of his candidate’s nomination papers.

LAHORE: Former Pakistan Football Federation secretary Hafiz Salman Butt on Sunday demanded that the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) investigate misappropriation of PFF funds by its president Faisal Saleh Hayat.

He was addressing a press conference after nomination papers of Ali Haider Noor Niazi, a candidate from his group, for the office of Punjab Football Association president were rejected.

Butt said the PFF had not been spending anything on the welfare of players and coaches from the huge donations it received from the FIFA and the AFC. He said the PFF’s annual budget was Rs20 million but Rs150 million had been incurred on Hayat’s foreign visits over 12 years.

Butt said Naveed Haider from the group led by Hayat had received a 20 per cent commission on each sponsorship deal. He said FIFA rules stated that a person having such a profitable job could not run for the elections. He said Niazi’s nomination papers had been rejected unlawfully. He said Niazi had been told that he had not been part of any football activity for two years. “This is wrong. He is the president of Al-Fareedia Football Club and has been promoting the game,” he said.

Butt said he would challenge the rejection in a court. “We will also move the National Accountability Bureau against Hayat,” he said.

Niazi the FPP chief election commissioner was Hayat’s relative. “We will win the elections scheduled for April 17,” he told The Express Tribune.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 13^th, 2015.