It was way back in the early 1980s, when Afghan refugees’ influx into Pakistan following the Russian invasion of Afghanistan brought with them the guns and drugs culture to soon plague the entire region, especially the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).

The entirety of the tribal areas were flooded with guns and heroin factories, with drug trafficking becoming a lucrative business. The region turned into a haven for peddlers and terrorists. Youth became the first victim of the menace.

Then a handful of local traders and social activists came together to do something productive to save their youth. Their solution: engaging the local youth in literary and sports activities, in order to keep them out of trouble.

The idea caught the attention of the local elders of Tehsil Landikotal in Khyber Agency (now District Khyber) and a comprehensive plan was prepared for literary and sports activities in the area, to attract and engage the youth. Sports activities attracted the youth more than literary events, but both things went hand in hand for several decades.

What started off as a means to wean tribal youth away from negative social trends has grown into a massive club football tournament in Khyber District. But sports enthusiasts are still waiting for infrastructural support from the provincial government…

The Khyber Sports Club was the first to take the initiative and pick young athletes from local schools to mobilise and train them for the very first club football tournament of the area.

The trio of Sahil Khan, Abdul Wakeel Khan and Akbar Ali selected the grounds of the Government High School (GHS) for this purpose. The event was inaugurated by the ‘Baba-i-Pashto Ghazal’, Ameer Hamza Khan Shinwari, who advised the tribal youth to pursue sports activities alongside literary events in the region.

Abdul Wakeel Khan, the pioneer and chairman of the Khyber Sports Club, recalls that the entire Pakhtun belt, especially the tribal region, was plagued by lawlessness in those days. “It was necessary that we come up with something to engage our youth,” he says, “and football seemed like the obvious solution.”

The first football tournament at the GHS ground was such a success that it turned into a much-awaited annual signature event and became a powerful vehicle for attracting youngsters of the area, including school and college students.

This past August, to mark 40 years of that pioneering initiative, a ‘Football for Peace’ tournament was organised at the same ground, under the auspices of the Khyber District Sports Department and the Khyber Sports Club.

Forty sports clubs from across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) participated in the tournament, despite the lack of funds and facilities, such as dressing rooms, stands etc at the rugged ground. Around 4,000 soccer fans gathered daily to watch the matches and cheer for the players. The tournament continued for over 40 days.

Kalimullah Khan, the general secretary of the Khyber Sports Club, says that it was amazing seeing such a great response for the tournament, despite insufficient facilities, including security, accommodation and food arrangement for the hundreds of guest players.

“It showed the spirit of the KP youth and their hunger for sports. If provided a proper training academy, and other sports facilities, our sportsmen can achieve wonders,” he adds.

Because of the poor condition of the playground, more than a dozen players also sustained injuries during the event. The 2024 trophy and cash prize of Rs100,000 was clinched by the Darra 90 Sports Club, while the Zakariya Sports Club lifted the runners-up trophy, along with a cash prize of Rs50,000.

Speaking at the closing ceremony of the tournament, Mirajuddin Khan Shinwari, president of the Khyber Sports Club, said that sports activity in the region has produced many national- and international-level athletes, while also bringing down the addiction to drugs in the area. Unfortunately, most of the pioneering members of Khyber Sports Club are no more, though the spirit of sports created by them still rules over hearts, he added.

Zohaib Khan, a player of Jan Sports Club, who also won the Golden Boot, observed that he never thought he would become the top scorer of the tournament while playing on the uneven and muddy ground. “But I have surprised myself. If I can play so well here, imagine how well I will play on a proper grassy ground?” he said afterwards.

Manzoor Khan Afridi, the captain of the Darra 90 Sports Club, said that he was happy to see so much interest in football in school and college students of the area.

Meanwhile, while quoting well-placed sources within the Khyber Rifles, Nasib Shah Shinwari, a local sports enthusiast, says that the first-ever football match played on the same playground was back in December 1899, during the British era, between the Hampshire Regiment and Royal Scots Fusiliers.

“More than any game, the local residents here have a special penchant for football,” he says, while regretting that the KP government has failed to provide sports facilities to most athletes of the area, with only the local sports clubs coming forward to organise sports events for them, in the absence of any kind of government funding or sponsors.

The organisers of the recent mega football tournament, the players and elders of the area were all of the view that a state-of-the-art sports complex was the need of the hour in the area. They feel it would substantially help in nurturing peaceful, responsible and useful citizens.

Muhammad Kashif Khan, who recently achieved the honour of Man of the Match in the World Street Children football tournament played in Norway, also shared his views on the matter. “In fact, this annual tournament, on this rough and tough school playground, gave me so much motivation as I, too, used to compete in the annual tournament,” he says. “It made me confident enough to compete in a world-level match.”

Rahid Gul Mullagory, an official of the Khyber District Sports Department, hopes that local youth would be supported in promoting healthy activities in the future, as no other sports activity captures their attention as much as football.

Hopefully, the KP government will also be listening.

The writer is a Peshawar-based contributor. X: @Shinwari_9

Published in Dawn, EOS, October 27th, 2024