Daily Times

Pakistan is a cricketing nation; there is no question about it. Cricket is and probably always will be the nation’s favorite sport. Lots of children grew up with the idea that they wanted to play cricket when they grow up and possibly represent Pakistan; that was the ultimate dream. Street cricket used to be our youths favorite pastime. However, we now live in an age where we are exposed to more than just cricket. We are a generation that has been exposed to all sorts of sports which include rugby, football, hockey, tennis and even MMA. However, I specifically want to talk about football because there is a whole other side to the sport in Lahore, and subsequently Pakistan, that the public just does not know about. Today I am going to shed some light onto the Pakistani street football scenario and what it means to a group of very passionate players.

We are unconventional. We are the children who grew up with dreams to be able to play football and then, make something out of ourselves because of our passion. We are a generation who spent our childhood playing the game we love in parks and on roads trying to emulate the Ronaldinho’s and Figo’s of the world. We fell in love with a game that was never going to give us anything back in Pakistan and deep down, it breaks our hearts. This happens because we have the talent, potential, the work ethic and the mindset to be able to do great things with a ball at our feet. However, we are subject to one of the worst batch of legislators in Pakistani football history and this is what I want to discuss. The basic premise of my argument is this that with the right support, Pakistani football could take the world by storm. In order to do that, I need to be able to prove two things. Number one is that we actually have the talent to succeed, and number two, the reason we have not made a bigger splash is because this small but aspiring community of young footballers has fallen prey to the typical nature of lazy politics that has seeped into the Pakistani Football Federation.

Let me take you through a typical night of street football in Pakistan. Street football team captains are usually in touch with each other and they set up games over text messages. Then, when a match is setup, captains send out a further text to their teammates asking them to confirm their availability and to bring some money to book the ground where the match is to be held. There are not too many places where football can be played; one of the more popular places is a ground called “Play on Lahore” where there are two netted fields along with floodlights. There are two versions of “Play on”, one is near the far end of Bedian road and another is at the far reaches of Johar Town. Both charge a small amount for teams to be able to book a pitch and then subsequently be able to use the facilities.

Usually what happens is that teams arrive fifteen minutes after they are supposed to start, they take another fifteen minutes to chat and warm up and then they casually walk onto the pitch. You would think that they should arrive on time but it is just a part of street culture, nothing ever begins on time in Pakistan anyway. By now, if you were a bystander, you would probably start thinking that these teenagers have nothing spectacular to show you and the already casual attitude they display proves that they are not that good at the game. This is an assumption that many on the outside tend to make but when the whistle blows, “Magic”. Teams that have grown up together playing football show you exactly why they love the game so much.

This is a game that brings them together and you can see it in the way that teammates trust each other on and off the ball. They work hard for each other, a little bit of skill here, a magical turn there and a beautiful move. Later they are celebrating because they have just displayed to each other and themselves what they are capable of. For many of these players, football is all they really have. They take pride in themselves on the fact that they have the ability to play a sport that is considered difficult to master. Sixty minutes later, the game usually ends because there are other teams waiting to use the ground. This cycle usually goes on until there are no more teams left and home beckons. These games usually take place from dusk to midnight because it is simply too hot in Pakistan to play in the afternoons. Players go home feeling satisfied whether they have won or lost because not only have they performed to their limit, they have done it with teammates who they consider family. These small, amateur teams are very much like tight knit family groups.

To give you an idea of how good these teams really are, I would like to quote some examples. There is a team called “Fantastic 5” that has won 8 amateur tournaments in Lahore this summer, there is a team called “FC Kaos” that beat the Pakistan under 19 team two years ago. There are players who have gone abroad, on their own expense, and tried out with some of the best teams in the world including Norwich City FC, Rangers FC, Nottingham Forrest FC and even Crystal Palace FC. But why do they have to go abroad on their own? Why do they have to spend money where we have an organization that is supposed to do it for us? This is where the Pakistani Football Federation or the PFF comes in.

Currently, Pakistan is ranked 172nd in the official FIFA Rankings worldwide. Since our inception as a nation, the average ranking we have attained is a lowly 169. That alone goes to show you how ‘great’ a job the PFF is doing. Poor managerial changes, atrocious budgeting decisions and internal corruption are just some of the things that have plagued the PFF and the organization has come to such a low point that FIFA has had to intervene and launch an internal investigation as to why one of its member states is doing so poorly. It has come to such a point where the Pakistani Premier League is at a standstill because ongoing legal and political issues within the PFF have left the leagues future hanging in the balance. Not that the league was entertaining in any way. In fact, the PPL is famous for the amount of “Walkover” points that other teas accumulate. A walkover is essentially a victory for another team because another team fails to show up. A walkover into ‘professional football ’is unheard of and yet it is all too common in Pakistani football. The whole organization, from top to bottom, is a mess.

A running joke within the street football community is that some of the best street football teams in Pakistan have the capability to beat these so-called ‘professional’ teams if they were given a chance. The sad part is, there is a very high chance that they are correct. To even think such a thing would be futile in other parts of the world, but the sad reality in Pakistan is that street football has evolved in a way that is not in tandem with professional football in Pakistan. Street football has gone beyond professional football. What is truly heartbreaking is that this can only mean one thing, wasted talent. Amateur Street football, at the end of the day, is exactly that; amateur.

We have no cameras to play for, we have no one to be able to show off our skills too, we have no organisation to turn to because the PFF is a mess and we have nothing to play for. We have nothing to play for but ourselves and the game we love because we hope, we pray, we dream that one day we will be able to show the world exactly what this nation and its athletes are capable of. It is a very sad reality, however, that most of us are going to fall by the wayside, lose our youth and eventually not be able to make something of ourselves in a way that would bring pride to not just us but the nation as a whole.

We are a generation of footballers who are truly gifted enough to make a difference, we can not do it in Pakistan. We go home each night thinking ‘What if?’ what if we grew up in a country that allowed us to celebrate our talent rather than mourn it?What if we had an organization that allowed us to flourish and what if we truly are good enough but never have the chance to show it? This is the plight of the Pakistani street football community. Come watch us sometime. Maybe you will be convinced and understand what I mean.

The blogger – a student of economics and international studies at Ohio Wesleyan University–is a vocal individual with a variety of interests including politics, diplomacy, literature and sports.