It has been irony of fate that despite “enjoying” more than fifty years of existence, Pakistan Football Federation has failed to establish an infrastructure of national football in the country. As a result of in-efficient management of resources and manpower we reside on a humiliating 177th position on the world ranking out of 205 football playing nations( thanks to PFF and we should be ashamed of ourselves), just above countries like Afghanistan, Djibouti and Somalia. Even Rwanda and Gabon are better than us. Is there anybody to ask what the hell PFF been doing since more than fifty years for the betterment of football in Pakistan. I believe, instead of praising the officials to help us get onto the great 177th position on the world ranking, they should be brought to book for this horrible mismanagement and inefficiency. The ranking of Pakistan has been improving at a snail’s speed and on this pace, I hope Pakistan football team will qualify for finals in somewhere around the year 2220 and our great great grandchildren will enjoy watching Pakistan team playing football in a world cup finals. (Watch out Brazil! Here we come!!!!).

The interests and feelings of PFF about the game can be judged by their website, which seemed to me as the mirror of their performance. The website appears to be developed by some school child (You would agree once you visit it). On the very head of the website the name of the president Makhdoom Faisal Sualeh Hayat keeps dancing (As if it is his personal website). Interesting information about Mr. President is that he is one of the “Patriots” who betrayed their party and joined the government side, he was initially awarded the office of the Interior minister but after some time was removed from that post and sent to hold the relatively unimportant office of minister of Kashmir affairs. (Due to some “good” performance I guess). He had also been on the list of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for corruption charges and I am just surprised how he can manage so much so easily. Bearing the offices in the government and working for promotion of football as well. No wonder football is on the rise in Pakistan. The biggest joke on the website is that they want the people to inform them, the PPF, whether we know of some stadium in Pakistan they haven’t included in the list of stadiums (Ha Ha Ha). How would they organize the game if they don’t even know about the stadiums in the country? The website also mentions another website, www.footballpakistan.com right on the head, which, it says has nothing to do it with PPF, but that one seems to be more reasonable and informative than the official website of the PPF.

As far as the team is concerned, it had a boost of moral when it won the SAF games finals against Indian team (ranking 135) and PFF started claiming that they had brought the Pakistan football on the verge of entering the international scenario, but alas!!! The team lost to Kazakhstan in the world cup qualifying rounds and then lost to Malaysia as well in the Islamic solidarity games and brought all the PFF claims back to the ground. I do not blame them but the entire responsibility goes to PFF as it has never been able to generate funds for the players and was never able to find a healthy sponsor for the thrilling game of football. I wonder what they have done if they would be managing a slower game like chess or golf.

In Pakistan, the tournaments have been occurring in secrecy as if some sort of anti-government or anti-Islam activity is going on and people would react fiercely if they come to know about the tournament. Today a football match between two even sides is thought to be the most exhilarating event but the high ups of our PTV’s so called sports channel believe that showing Olympic performance of Jamaican players is more important than showing the tournaments taking place at the national level. Nobody would deny that football can turn out to be a billion-dollar sport but again….. poor marketing strategies!!!!

But there is some ray of hope as well in the sky. As the Indian football team is about to visit Pakistan, and it would play a series of three matches in Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta. (Karachi was deprived of hosting one!!). Another event due in 2005 is the SAF cup for which Karachi was at last chosen as the venue. But the problem is that Peoples stadium of Karachi seems to be in a horrible condition and was rejected for the AFC President’s cup against the KHATMANDU stadium of Nepal. So let’s see what happens!!!

At this moment, it is the need of the hour that the President should take personal interest in the promotion of football. It is the sport of the poor and suits us more than Cricket or expensive motor sports. The PFF should be reorganized and all the shameless people holding the offices should be brought to book and replaced by competent officials, who love the game. The sufferings of the players should also be addressed now, or some day we won’t find a single youth interested in playing football.

REFERENCES:
www.fifa.com
www.footballpakistan.com
www .sports.gov.pk
www.pff.com.pk