Faisal Saleh Hayat attends AFC EXCO Meet on Thursday

Lahore, 17 March: Pakistan Football Federation (PFF)’s President Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat will attend the AFC Executive Committee (EXCO) Meet on Thursday, 17 March 2011.

This is another feather to his brilliant career cap as he will become first-ever Pakistani to attend such highest decision-making committee Meet. The AFC Executive Committee is responsible for implementing AFC statutes and decisions of AFC Congress. All decisions made by AFC standing committees and judicial bodies must also be ratified by the Executive Committee. Newly-formed AFC Executive Committee 2011-15, chaired by AFC President Mohamed bin Hammam, will meet at Kuala Lumpur and ratified a series of important decisions taken by the AFC Standing Committees.

The game of football in Pakistan took long 63 years to confer a meritorious awards on PFF Chief. He is also the only Pakistani person to hold the unique and unprecedented honor of visiting a World Cup as member of FIFA/ World Cup Disciplinary Committee last year. He is also Chairman of Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Disciplinary Committee since 15 July 2009. None of the previous 16 PFF Presidents were able to get a single post from FIFA or AFC.

Faisal Saleh Hayat also chaired AFC Disciplinary Committee meet four times last year on 22 March, 30 April, 13 August and 22 November and solved various disciplinary case.

Two months ago he reached milestone of becoming first man from Pakistan to have been elected to the prestigious post of AFC Executive Committee during 24th Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Congress in Doha , Qatar . “Certainly, it is a massive honor for Pakistan . AFC is responsible for managing the entire football in Asia and our getting a berth in its Executive Committee has many immediate and long-term benefits for football as well as for helping the talent for the game develop further in Pakistan,” said Faisal and added that in yester years we used to requests KL-based AFC for events and courses etc., but we are now in a position to make our own decisions about the game right from here. It is from this forum that we will promote football in Pakistan and our vision for the game in our country. When it goes up in Asia , it will go up in the world.

Faisal won the hearts of sports fraternity recently as recent visits of two foreign teams from Middle East and South East Asia to Pakistan have restored everyone’s confidence and the sporting country like Pakistan, the record holder in SA Games Soccer with four golds, now look forward to deal with bigger events of international circuit in the forthcoming days. The arrival of Malaysian U21 team after Palestinian National team signaled the revival of sporting events in the country. It’s a good step that foreign teams have started coming to Pakistan which will send positive message across the world.

AFC EXCO Members who will attend the Meet will be President AFC H.E. Mohamed Bin Hamam, V. Manilal Fernando, Ganesh Thapa, Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat ( Pakistan ), Ali Azim ( Maldives ), Lee Boo Aun Winston ( Singapore ), Tran Quoc Tuan ( Vietnam ), Zaw Zaw ( Myanmar ), Ganbold Buyannemekh ( Mongolia ), Kohzo Tashima ( Japan ) and Richard K. Lai ( Guam )