| Football in Pakistan | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Country | Pakistan |
| Governing body | Pakistan Football Federation |
| National team | Men's national team |
| First played | 1950 |
| National competitions | |
| Club competitions | |
Football is among the most popular team sports inPakistan, together with long time number onecricket andfield hockey.[1][2][3]
Pakistan's current top domestic football league is thePakistan Premier League, recognised by theAFC as the official national football league. TheNational Football Challenge Cup is a knock-out competition among Pakistani departmental and government institutions. Football in general is run by thePakistan Football Federation.[4]
The origin of football in Pakistan can be traced back to the mid-nineteenth century when the game was introduced by British soldiers during theBritish Raj. British evangelistTheodore Leighton Pennell played a crucial role in introducing football to theNorth-West Frontier Province (nowKhyber Pakhtunkhwa) in the last decade of the nineteenth century.[5] In the south inKarachi, the sport was further popularised through interactions with sailors at the port.[6]
One of the regional federations to organise football in what is now Pakistan Territory was theNorth-West India Football Association,[7] established in 1932 and reportedly encompassing football control inPunjab,NWFP,Sindh andBalochistan.[8] In addition several regional leagues were also organised in cities such as Lahore.[7][9] Before the 1930s, football in the region was dominated by military, railway, and college teams.[10][11] Before independence, many notable players from present-day Pakistan also made their mark in theCalcutta League, particularly forKolkata Mohammedan.[12][13]
Shortly after the creation of Pakistan in 1947, thePakistan Football Federation (PFF) was created, andMuhammad Ali Jinnah became its first Patron-in-Chief. PFF received recognition fromFIFA in early 1948.[14]
The annualNational Football Championship was organised shortly after. Held on knock-out basis and a closed format competition, this tournament brought together regional provincial and division association teams, as well asdepartmental andarmed forces teams representing various government institutions, emerging as the premier football tournament in the country. Parallel to the championship, many separate amateur regional leagues with promotion and relegation featuring clubs were also held, likeKarachi Football League, Lahore Football League, or Quetta Football League. Players frequently took part in these competitions for their local clubs, while also being selected to represent either their provincial/divisional associations or their departmental teams in the National Championship.[15] TheDhaka First Division League gave a level of competitive professionalism inEast Pakistan, which lacked inWest Pakistan, and many players affiliated with its clubs, both fromWest andEast Pakistan, were chosen to represent theEast Pakistan provincial team or the Dhaka Division team in the National Championship.[16][17]
In 1950, the national team gained their first international experience inIran andIraq. Pakistan's next international outing came in the1952 Asian Quadrangular Football Tournament where the team played its first match againstIndia, which ended in a goalless draw and emerged as joint winners of the tournament after finishing with the same points in the table.[18]
In the 1950s because of limited options available for PFF, international games were infrequent. Pakistan could not participate in anyWorld Cup qualification for many years because of financial limitations and political instability inside the PFF, competing mainly in theAsian Quadrangular Football Tournament editions and theAsian Games.[17] Pakistan also hosted the Ismail Gold Shield Football Tournament which featured teams fromIndia,Iran,Ceylon, along with others.[19][20][21] The matches were held underfloodlights, mainly at theIbn-e-Qasim Bagh Stadium inMultan.[22][23]
The 1960s resulted in Pakistan football most prominent years.[16] Pakistan had participated in various friendly tournaments in the early 1960s, with theMerdeka Cup hosted in Malaysia after the country first participation in 1960.[24] Pakistan recorded a 7–0 victory overThailand,[25] and a 3–1 win overJapan.[25] In the1962 Merdeka Tournament, Pakistan ended runner up after falling to Singapore by 1–2 in the final.[26]
The decade also saw many foreign teams often tour Pakistan for test matches, includingBurma (1961),China (1963) andSaudi Arabia (1967) national teams, and teams from theSoviet Union. In 1963, whilst on a world tour,Bundesliga sideFortuna Düsseldorf toured East and West Pakistan playing friendly matches against select XI sides. The American teamDallas Tornado went on a world tour that took them from Europe to Asia. During the trip, the team made a week’s stop in Pakistan from October to November 1967, where they played the Pakistan national team.[27][16][28]
Following the1971 Bangladesh Liberation War,East Pakistan became the independent nation ofBangladesh. This separation also led to the loss of theDhaka First Division League.[16]
Football mainly survived on the basis of sports budgets ofdepartmental teams likeWAPDA,Army,KESC,SSGC,PIA andRailways, which hired footballers as employees and provided them with a basic wage to play for their sides and work full time in the off-season.[16][29] During this dark period, however, several local leagues were launched across theMiddle East, where several Pakistani players represented club sides in these leagues and some of these players even coached the clubs’ new youth setups. Several local tournaments also started in Pakistan, such as the internationalQuaid-e-Azam International Tournament.[16]
In 1985, the Asian Football Confederation brought back theAsian Club Championship after a 14 year absence.Pakistan Airlines, having won the1984 Inter-Provincial Championship, was elected to become Pakistan’s first representative in Asian club football, ending up unsuccessful. Pakistan started playing a vital role in the World Cups for years before the participation. The sports goods industry ofSialkot had been providing millions of footballs around the world, peaking during World Cup seasons, since 1980. However Pakistan began with their first ever participation for the1990 FIFA World Cup qualifiers for Italy in 1989, ending up unsuccessful. The national team bounced back, when several months later they took Gold at the1989 South Asian Games, beatingBangladesh 1–0 in the final.[30] In the1991 South Asian Games, Pakistan beat theMaldives in the final 2–0 to win their second Gold.[31] Later in the year thefirst SAFF Cup took place inLahore in 1993, and the national team finished fourth.
Pakistani football became a hot bed for politics in the early 1990s. In 1990, Pakistan Football Federation held its general elections in whichMian Muhammad Azhar won the presidency by a margin of one vote, beating thePakistan Peoples Party leaderFaisal Saleh Hayat. Azhar later ousted PFF General Secretary Hafiz Salman Butt (a Member of National Assembly ofJamaat-e-Islami) in 1994 due to political rifts and allegedabuse of power.[32]
Under Hafiz Salman Butt, the 1992–93 and 1993–94 seasons of theNational Football Championship structured on a proper league-style basis and spread over a number of months.[32] The top division, named asNational Lifebuoy A-Division Football Championship, operated alongside a system of promotion and relegation with the second-tierNational LifebuoyB-Division Football Championship, which was won byCrescent Textile Mills (1992), National Bank (1993), and Frontier Scouts (1994).[7]Wohaib FC, founded by Butt, emerged as a leading club of the country in the early 1990s and became thefirst Pakistani club to pass the qualifying round of theAsian Club Championship, where it qualified in the1992–93 edition.[32][33]
The years were often regarded as the best administrative era of Pakistani football.[34] Butt also managed to get a three-year sponsorship deal withLifebuoy Soap, with amounts of 35 millionPKR spent in the organisations of the seasons and televised through the country.[32][35][34][36] With Butt's dismissal in 1994 and ban by FIFA in 1995, Pakistani football declined again into an era of mismanagement and long-lasting lack of sponsors in the upcoming years.[32] The National Championship also reverted to its previous knockout format.
Pakistan Airlines lost their dominance until the end of the 1990s, winning their last of 9 national championships in 1997.WAPDA,Pakistan Army, and Allied Bank before their disbanding in early 2000s took over as the dominant sides in Pakistan. The physically dominant gameplay ofPunjab teams, had over-taken Karachi football by then.[32]
In August 2003, the PFF became under new management, as the politicianFaisal Saleh Hayat took over. Under new management, the Pakistan Football Federation phased out the National Football Championship and in 2004 introduced thePakistan Premier League with promotion and relegation.[37][38] With the inception of the newly formed league,provincial anddivisional teams were phased out. In contrast,departmental andarmed forces teams, which hired footballers as employees and provided them with a basic wage to play for their sides and work full time in the off-season, remained active in the new league format. The emergence of clubs like founding memberAfghan FC Chaman orMuslim FC gave competition to departmental sides, which poached talented players without any transfer fees or compensation involved.[38] TheGeo Super Football League of 2007, running as a parallel city-based league to Pakistan Premier League, held in Karachi saw record crowds atPeoples Stadium. It wasn’t until 2010 with the next edition that the Geo League came back only to be discontinued due to differences with the PFF.[38] ThePakistan under-23 national team also showed improvement, winning theSouth Asian Games gold in2004 and2006. Karachi also saw resurgence in football withKarachi United emerging in the mid 2000s focusing on grass-roots level football in Pakistan.[38]
However the controversial PFF chiefMakhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat politician soon became known as a "feudal lord of Pakistani football" due to embezzlement of funds among other controversies.[39] Since March 2015, the top division of thePakistan Premier League remained suspended because the crisis created due to his actions, along with the men's senior team, who remained suspended from any international competition, and FIFA rankings of the senior team had slumped.[40][41] During his controversial tenure, Pakistan's FIFA ranking dropped from 168 in 2003 to 201 in 2017, which was the year that PFF consequently received a ban from FIFA.[42]
The lift on suspension byFIFA on 13 March 2018.[43] The2018–19 season was ultimately organised by two different federations.Faisal Saleh Hayat-ledPakistan Football Federation, which was internationally recognised, started the league and non-FIFA recognised Ashfaq Hussain Shah group, which formed a parallel PFF, coming into power by third-party interference through the PFF elections conducted by theSupreme Court.[44][45][46] In 2019, Pakistan national team also lost its chance to pass the2022 FIFA World Cup qualification after losing againstCambodia due to national camps held by two different factions.[47] In January 2019,Atlético Madrid also launched Pakistan's first European football academy.[48][49][50][51]
After the suspension once again from all football activities by FIFA on 7 April 2021,[52][53] the2021–22 season was initially organised by the Ashfaq Hussain Shah group, who again came to power after attacking and taking charge of the PFF office.[54] The tournament was suspended after a few months into the season and then cancelled.[55]
The suspension was lifted on 29 June 2022.[56] On 27 July 2023, the draw for the first round of the2026 FIFA World Cup qualification took place in which Pakistan were drawn once again againstCambodia, followed by the appointment of the English coachStephen Constantine.[57] In the first leg inPhnom Penh, Pakistan contested in a goalless 0–0 draw.[58] Pakistan won their second leg beating Cambodia 1–0 inIslamabad, recording their first-ever victory in World Cup qualifiers in their first fixture at home for eight years, and qualifying for the second round for the first time.[59]
On 6 February 2025, the federation was suspended again byFIFA due to its failure to adopt a revision of the PFF Constitution that would ensure truly fair and democratic elections as part of lifting the previous suspension. The suspension will be lifted again when the PFF Congress approves the version of the PFF Constitution presented by FIFA and theAFC.[60]
The knock-out basedNational Football Championship served as the highest level football competition from 1948 to 2003.[61] Parallel to the championship, many separate amateur regional leagues with promotion and relegation featuring clubs were also held, likeKarachi Football League, Lahore Football League, or Quetta Football League. Players frequently took part in these competitions for their local clubs, while also being selected to represent either their provincial/divisional associations or their departmental teams in the National Championship.[62]
The 1992–93 and 1993–94 seasons ofNational Football Championship were contested in a league-style format, and were the Pakistan's first ever national league format competition.[32][33][35] Sponsored as theNational Lifebuoy A-Division Football Championship, the tournament ran across several months and introduced a system of promotion and relegation with the second-tierNational Lifebuoy B-Division Football Championship.
The National Championship was eventually replaced by thePakistan Premier League from the2004 season in order to modernise the sport in Pakistan. The Pakistan Premier League operates on a system ofpromotion and relegation with theFootball Federation League. In 2006, the Pakistan Football Federation introduced theNational Club Championship as a third tier beneath the PFF League.[63][64][65]
The franchise basedGeo Super Football League was held in 2007 and 2010.
Some following notable tournaments were held outside the auspices of the Pakistan Football Federation and any national sports governing body:
Lyari, a neighbourhood inKarachi, holds an important place in Pakistan's football landscape due to its historical and cultural ties to the sport. Dating back several decades, Lyari has been a consistent source of football talent particularly the 1960s, contributing significantly to the national sports scene.[68][69][3][70] Notable players from Lyari during this period includeAbdul Ghafoor, nicknamed the "PakistaniPelé" and "Black Pearl of Pakistan",[71]Muhammad Umer,Moosa Ghazi,Abid Ghazi,Turab Ali,Ali Nawaz Baloch, among others.[72][73] The Kakri Ground andPeople's Football Stadium, which is one of the major football stadiums in the country are located in the city.[74]
One notable aspect is the nickname "Little Brazil" often associated with Lyari, reflecting the neighborhood's passion for football, drawing parallels to the football culture ofBrazil.[75][76][77][78]
| Stadium | Capacity | City | Province | Home team(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jinnah Sports Stadium | 48,900[79] | Islamabad | Islamabad Capital Territory | Pakistan national football team |
| People's Football Stadium | 40,000[80] | Karachi | Sindh | Pakistan national football team |
| Year | Recipient[81] | Award | Gender |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | Syed Abdus Samad | Pride of Performance | Male |
| 1962 | Hafiz Rashid | Pride of Performance | Male |
| 1963 | Abbas Mirza | Pride of Performance | Male |
| 1964 | Khundker Nasim Ahmed | Pride of Performance | Male |
| 1966 | Sheikh Shaheb Ali | Pride of Performance | Male |
| 1969 | Moideen Kutty | Pride of Performance | Male |
| 1989 | Muhammad Umer | Tamgha-e-Imtiaz | Male |
| 1995 | Ali Nawaz Baloch | Pride of Performance | Male |
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