Football concerns.

A DAY after the FIFA-AFC delegation left the country after holding meetings with officials of the Pakistan Football Federation Normalisation Committee and others, the national women's football team arrived to a warm welcome - as runners-up in the Four-Nations Tournament in Saudi Arabia. Opening with a 1-0 win against Comoros, Pakistan suffered a 2-1 reverse against Mauritius. Captain Maria Khan's brilliant free-kick then secured a 1-1 draw against Saudi Arabia, allowing Pakistan to take second spot behind the hosts. The PFF NC's mandate, apart from its main role of holding elections for Pakistan's football governing body, is to put the game back on track. With the women's team, it seems to have done its job. The team hadn't played a game in eight years before taking part in the SAFF Women's Championship last year. Their performance in Saudi Arabia was creditable considering three foreign-based players couldn't play as they did not possess Pakistani passports, a grave error by the PFF NC.

Criticism of the PFF NC - which has had two iterations since it was first...