Mohsen emerges from shadows with plans to resolve PFF crisis

Ever since FIFA appointed a Normalisation Committee for the Pakistan Football Federation in September 2019, one man has been consistently mentioned as having had a big say on the decisions taken by the NC.

Mohsen Gilani has been called the orchestrator, the influencer, the ring leader to whose tune the NC has danced. He has maintained a low profile, working behind the scenes in Pakistan football. Until now, of course.

Mohsen has met Dr. Fehmida Mirza, the federal minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination, who for the last month has been working to resolve Pakistan football's latest crisis which has resulted in a FIFA suspension. Mohsen, formerly associated with the FIFA development office, is finally coming to the fore and in his first interview since his time working for the global football body, he gave an overview of his plans to extricate Pakistan football out of its current predicament. But first, he wanted to dispel some notions.

"The NC was formed by FIFA and to say that someone is an orchestrator is an insult to FIFA," Mohsen told Dawn, hours after his meeting with the IPC minister. "The members of the NC were all nominated by the stakeholders, the different groups seeking control of the

PFF. How could I have had an influence on them as they were nominees of factions?"

Allegations of Mohsen having control over the NC's decision-making have died down since FIFA revamped it following the resignation of chairman Humza Khan in December last year. In came Haroon Malik but the new chairman barely spent three months in the PFF headquarters before it was taken over by a group of football officials led by Ashfaq Hussain Shah.

Ashfaq's group of officials claim that they are the rightful custodians of football in Pakistan, having come to power through an election of the PFF held by the Supreme Court in December 2018.