Departmental Level Football
With a population of 220 million,
most of them cricket crazy, football was always going to play second fiddle as
a sport in Pakistan. But no one could have imagined that one day, Pakistan
would be the only nation among the 47 members of the Asian Football
Confederation (AFC) without a single win in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
The reasons range from chronic
political disputes to a severe lack of funding. But take a deeper look and you realize
the missing piece is a top-tier professional football league, which acts as a
hub for the entire football ecosystem. Player development, infrastructure,
funding, grassroots, and clubs are the pillars on which countries have built footballing
dynasties, but Pakistan has missed out badly here.
The Pakistan Premier League (PPL)
was revamped in 2003 upon Faisal Saleh Hayat’s election as president of the
Pakistan Football Federation (PFF), but it hasn’t changed much in the last 17
years. The league takes its roots from the National Championship that started
in 1947 and, apart from a short revamping stint that saw Lifebuoy become the
title sponsor under Hafiz Salman Butt (1990-93), it remains practically
unchanged for the last 73 years.
Departments rule the roost and
teams include the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda), the Khan
Research Laboratories (KRL), the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC), the Karachi
Port Trust (KPT), the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), the Pakistan Army and other
government entities, which use investment in sports as evidence of their
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), with little desire to develop talent or professionalize
their set-ups. The few clubs that are present are primarily from Baluchistan,
where the fierce Chaman derby between Afghan FC and Muslim FC commands crowds
in the thousands. Most of the league, though, is played silently, without any
fanfare.
In 2007, a breath of fresh air
arrived in the shape of the Geo Super League, with teams based on cities and
live broadcast of all the games. It gave live coverage to domestic footballers
for the first time and merited a second attempt in partnership with K-Electric
in 2010. But the league did not continue because the organizers and sponsors
reportedly did not want to work with the PFF again.
Subsequently, the Pakistan
Premier League (PPL) has never bagged a regular sponsor (a five-year-deal with
KASB fell through after a single season in 2009), runs on an ad-hoc basis for
four to five months, and has never been broadcast on television.
This brings us to the key
question: what should Pakistan’s league look like? Should it be a
franchise-based model like the Pakistan Super League (PSL) in cricket, or
should it take a route similar to Bangladesh’s?
Since a PSL team is extremely
expensive ($6.2 million per year for Multan Sultans, for example) and while
football will be cheaper, it is crucial that the money be spent on football and
infrastructure development rather than paying team costs. An alternative route
is revamping the PPL with an immediate phasing out of departmental teams and
their replacement with city-based teams that can be acquired through one-off
payments or low franchise fees with long-term installment plans.
This approach allows for the marketing
and hype associated with a franchise model but also prevents a completely new
league from being at odds with the football pyramid. As a result, the entire
system, including a second-tier league and below, can be remodeled to ensure
promotion and relegation, a fundamental principle of global football that the
franchise model ignores.
Meeting requirements for the AFC
Cup will require organic growth from clubs and the league, but the long-term
aim should be qualification for the AFC Champions League (Asia’s equivalent of
the UEFA Champions League). This requires a host of features, including 14-15
teams in a league, 27 minimum games for each side and a maximum of two teams
sharing a single stadium. The list is extensive, covering everything from ticket
pricing to club administration. It’s a lofty dream, but one which can be
achieved with the right vision and strategic planning.
A football league is a certainty
in Pakistan in the next few years and the PFF recently made it clear that they
hold the rights to such a venture, not any third party. However, for Pakistan
to truly realize its potential, what’s needed is harmony between the private
sector and the federation. Most importantly, it needs to have a league model,
where the priority is football.
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