Football Worldcup Qualifiers (Asia)

FIFA World Cup 2022 draws for the second round have just come out. Countries like Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, India, Maldives and even Afghanistan have moved to the second round.

Pakistan misses out yet again. It's surprising and pleasing to see that most of our neighbors have booked their berths on road to Qatar 2022. Football is the most played sport in the world. Also, it is the most followed and viewed sport in the world. India currently ranks 101 on FIFA world ranking. The only Asian team in top 20 is IR Iran at 20, our neighbor. Another neighbor Afghanistan ranks 149 in the list. Saudi Arabia holds 69th seed on the table.

Pakistan is only 7 places up (205) of total 211 FIFA associations. Our best spot in the rankings was 142 in 1993 and since then we have been dropping on the chart. Pakistan Football Federation that has been highly politicized in the past 25 years. Faisal Saleh Hayat and his mafia have held the football in Pakistan hostage for long before an election was carried out inside Supreme court building on the order of apex court in December 2018. The new President Ashfaq Hussain is an engineer by profession and had headed the Peshawer District Football Association in the past. The new elected body has failed to make any substantial gains and is walking the footsteps of the previous regime of Hayat who ruled PFF for 15 years.

Currently PFF claims it has 2500 registered clubs and 60,000 registered players coached by 671 coaches. These are big numbers however the quality of the sport and development is questionable. It is an irony that our media fails to ask any questions on the failures of PFF. The Government of Pakistan currently headed by a sportsman seems to be unaware of the situation and has not taken any action on this massive failure.

The sports are proven to be the binding force of a nation/federation yet we fail to recognize the significance of world's top sport and utilize it to bind our people. Through this platform I urge the people to raise questions on our failures and make the relevant officials answerable on this disaster. Why could we not make it to the second qualifiers round when teams like Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal have booked their places. Pakistanis have thumped their marks in every field of life, why are we miserable in this sport.

Come on people, come on Siasat.pk. Let's throw a pebble in the pool. For the first time let's make our voices reach to these sleeping giants who are onl power hungry to hold their positions while they are incompetent to do their jobs.

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