In Pakistan, the game of football has always been in crisis. There are a lot of reasons, firstly, we don’t have proper planning for developing it and creating ideas. Secondly, there is a lack of support from the Government as well. The difficulties faced by Pakistan are not because of people or sport itself but because there is improper planning and lack of a basic framework and mismanagement.
When Faisal Salah was PFF (Pakistan Football Federation) president Pakistan was re-installed as the same after a three-year ban by FIFA in 2003. When he first held this Pakistan ranked 168 in the world. Within the passage of 15 years, The football game has suffered laboriously due to his futile policies.
We have failed to develop a professional football league, which can help us find and train the unique and pre-eminent players, which we need for our national team. PFF’s president now claims that Pakistan would qualify for the FIFA world cup 2026 but the harsh reality is that at the rate we are going we are not capable of qualifying for the world cup even in the next 30 years. Especially if we keep up with the non-serious approach and continue to deprive our football players of quality facilities.
As per my understanding, we have to set realistic and achievable goals. We should keep in mind our ground realities, available resources and capabilities. We should start from the grass root level, we need more than a hundred grounds in each city with all required equipment and the need of necessary scout team for each academy which can help to find the players from youth and young talent that gets polished.
The situation for the long-term development of the football game is critical. Within 15 years if the proper academy model providing education, proper coaching, and required diet is supported and developed carefully, then there is a ray of hope that Pakistan might one day qualify for the FIFA World Cup.