Pakistan and Football
Pakistan lost 0-7 to Iraq at home in their World Cup qualifier last night. Despite the humiliating scoreline, the result will barely register as a blip in Pakistan (heck, I happened to come across it on livescore.com while spot-checking how fast our live blogger was compared to the live score service (franky’s faster)).
The result reminded me of two things - a BBC article that talked about how the PFF had conducted trials for British Asian footballers and the words of a friend of mine who’s been wondering why Soccerlens isn’t more popular in Pakistan (needs better offline marketing?).
It would be callous of me to call the PFF blundering idiots, but such is the organisational ineptitude here that well-meaning individuals spend decades trying to achieve what the (relatively) well-oiled organisational machinery in the West (oh, here we go again) would in a few years. The striking highlight of the image above (if you’re in your RSS reader, click through to see it) is that the players are standing behind the administration - football here is still very much a test-tube fetus where the players are less important than the people managing the sport.
Football is played with a passion here at school level (not as much as cricket, but it’s a close second, tied with basketball), but the most glaring thing missing is a grassroots structure to not only nurture talent but to highlight it. The team’s results may be an embarrassment but the mere fact that we’re working on improving our condition is something to be proud of. Nationalistic pride has its uses, football needs it more than ever.
I’m inclined to apply for the post of ‘foreign coach for the senior national team - while I lack the ‘foreign’ blood I’m good at Football Manager and somewhat known to football fans around the world (I kid) - AND I won’t charge much. My references would be journalists from the British media, if necessary. That has to count for something, doesn’t it?
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so ru from pakistan?
Thanks ahmed for writing the first article for pakistan on ssoccerlens. i;d like to correct one part of your article….my friend it would not be ccallous of u to call the pff idiots….it would be true. the pakistan team sucks. there is way too much talent in the country to be wasted by the assholes at pff. somebody help us…
Ahmed,
You are right about the corrupt adminstration but the real problem is willingness of the youth to represent their country at internaional level.Pakistan for being 179 in the world has immense talent and great potential but what it lacks is in proper infrastructure.Furthermore the amount of money offered to footballers is merely negligible as compared to other sports such as cricket.So the the solution lies in luring the youth and expatriates to represent Pakistan by giving them monetary incentives either through funding by the federal government or sponsors
hi i am from pakistan, even though i live in Panama. Every time i go to pakistan and ask for football nobody knows. the sport is like if it doesn’t exist. So if people do not play it how to you expect us to have a good team? we have talented people and we could incentive them with money, but football is a game you play with your heart to have fun, you are not in it for money. So as long as my fellow Pakistanies do not start to love the game we will never reach a world cup.
Football in Pakistan is the game of masses. Go to far flung northern areas, Poor parts of Punjab etc. You will notice that a huge amount of spectators comes to watch a football match. Whereas although Cricket is the most popular game, you don’t see even 1000 spectators in domestic cricket league matches. Even in international test matches between Pakistan and South Africa this month, stadiums were half empty.
Fortunately, Geo TV organized Geo Super League before Ramazan. Although it featured only five teams, it was a success to be honest. The level of play was good. This league may become a great success if it could become the official league of Pakistan since it is organized by non-government body and it will be no problem for Geo TV to attract sponsors. In one match, Pakistan national captain Essa told the reporter that this league is better than pff-organized premiere league. He further stated that the lack of interest of the players in premiere league can be judged by the fact that sometimes players don’t know who’s on top of the table!!! Nonetheless, they are bound to play in that league due to non-availability of other platforms and venues.
The most important thing, RIGHT NOW, is the exposure of the game. Once the TV channel start exposing players, Pakistani football and events, everything will follow.
I thoroughly agree with Haider that football has become the game of the masses in Pakistan even becoming more popular than cricket amongst the youth and further exposure of the game is immediately required
TBF Iraq are easily one of the best sides in the region. I’ve heard the EPL is becoming massive in the Middle East.
How do you guys think that we can increase the exposure of the game in Pakistan?
Ahmed, as I have stated in my earlier reply, the recently launched Geo Super league should continue. Although this league featured only five teams (Karachi Bazigar, Lahor Lajpals, Quetta Zorawar, Islamabad United and Tribe FC), it was a great experience. (Islamabad United even had two Nigerian Players). What I want to state again is that pff-organized premiere league should be abandoned and Geo Super league should be made official league of Pakistan (Hey, I ain’t a Geo employee). Since they (Geo)are private, they may bring the monies and glamor into Pakistani football. This should be the first step. Focusing youth development cannot transform into success without first triggering passion. And this can be done through the involvement of glamor and money. Why I’m stressing on these two is because masses in Pakistan is uneducated and have very limited opportunity to earn a decent living through office jobs. They cannot afford to play cricket because of the cost of gears involved in it but they can afford to play football since it requires only one ball. Football, coupled with good money, may provide them the opportunity to shine and live no matter what’s their level of education. Still, cricket is the game of rich and middle-class but football is the game of poor in Pakistan.
Right now, “media” has the greatest role to play to promote football in Pakistan. Football IS gaining attraction in Pakistan. One example of this fact is that Ten Sports (has great viewer-base in Pakistan), which didn’t use to give a crap about football just a couple of years ago, has started regularly featuring UEFA Champion’s League, French League 1, Scottish Premier League and Dutch Eredivisie.
What others has to add up to this discussion?
I caught a couple of matches from the super league - it’s not Championship pace but it wasn’t that bad either.
Privatization of a sport is hardly going to work in Pakistan, but you’re right it is a good idea. I doubt that GEO would get that heavily into football, but it could be very lucrative for them to do so.
However, the glamour also comes from playing for the country, and I think the PFF should be doing a lot more to highlight the team and the players.
hello
why don’t you look at second leg match
0-0 draw
it was only yasir sabir and shahzad goal keeper who lead the team 7-0 in the first match , just see who pakistani played in the second match
wawoooo
If anyone is interested in Pakistani football, visit this site: http://www.footballpakistan.com
It is much better than the official PFF site, and provides all the news about National Team, expat players, GEO SFL, and Pakistan Premier League. There is also a forum with almost 400 members (registration is free).