Why Pakistan Lacks Football Presence at the World Cup
Football or internationally known as soccer, is one of the most famous sports game in the world. There are a number of teams in football world cups; however, South East Asia lacks a clear presence.
Pakistan has remained world champions in snooker, squash, hockey and in cricket but has no standing in the football world cup. It is a question that arises in almost every Pakistani youngster’s mind. To your surprise, Pakistani’s passionately watch the games, follow the clubs and idolize world class footballers, but why they don’t have a presence at the international level, is the golden question here.
Pakistani football team hasn’t qualified to FIFA world cup or even Asian Cup championships. There could be a reason that people in Pakistan are cricket lovers and they might not understand football game and its rules properly to understand and enjoy the game. Every sport is promoted depending upon the number of audience it has. There is no proper funding and infrastructure for football in Pakistan, it is a generalize statement to make with out proper research and evidence, but it can be due to the less number of audiences here. At the end of the day, whether it’s a club, government or match organizers, they will have to earn from the audience.
Cricket is being played in Pakistan from decades and people are crazy about cricket because of its history in the sub-continent. However, nowadays, the new generations have started taking interest in football and people follow FIFA world cup matches just like they follow cricket matches. So that time is near when government will start investing on the infrastructure and funding for Pakistan’s football team because they will see revenue opportunity from this sports as this game generates far more revenues than cricket around the world.
Apart from conventional media, youngsters in Pakistan now even go online to browse the football websites to get the updates. Youngsters in Pakistan now even know about each and every football player and they always have opinions about different teams and matches. Although Pakistan doesn’t play in FIFA world cup but still they see the matches with great interest and they yearn to hear that Pakistani team will be playing football on the international level someday.
One of the reasons that why football is now gaining popularity in Pakistan is because people from all around the world see football matches with great curiosity and they celebrate FIFA world cup as a festival season. Communities have started investing and earning billions of dollars from this game, so people now in Pakistan want to know about this game and watch the matches with great enthusiasm. Many people are disappointed that Pakistan doesn’t play in FIFA world cup, and even Pakistanis have the potential, all they need is a little push and proper backing by the government. Talent is abundant in Pakistan, and you may witness young boys playing football in parks and in schools nowadays.
These kind of great sports events have effects on economies of the countries as well. People from all over the world went to South Africa to watch the world cup this year, which naturally promotes the tourism industry and people spend billions on flight tickets, which gives boom to international airlines. Even stock markets of some countries show ups and downs when FIFA world cup starts; in Pakistan people have different sources to earn during FIFA world cup by putting screens in their restaurants and other public areas and this becomes a source of income for the food business people and other related business communities. Many sports retailers, shops, transport channels and restaurants do good business during the championship; football creates many potential jobs.
Unlike cricket that can be played, anywhere even in streets, football need grounds, and clubs who can train the players. This trend of playing and watching football is now increasing in Pakistan and so there will be a time when the Pakistani team will be participating in FIFA world cup.
Pakistan has an edge of promoting this game as footballs and other sports equipment is being manufactured in Pakistan and the quality of products are very much competitive. Moreover, the grounds and clubs can easily be formed with the help of government funding, after that, all that is left is good players, which are already there in Pakistan.
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