A history of football in Pakistan — Part III
In the previous parts, I discussed the humble beginnings of football in Pakistan from independence (1947), early growth, the ‘Golden Age’ of the 1960s followed by a sudden, ‘Dark Age’ throughout the 1970s that stunted the potential growth of beautiful game in the country. The gloom was somewhat lifted in the early half of the 1980s as Pakistan scratched and scrapped itself back from the international wilderness with a new, bold, but grossly inexperienced generation of players who strived to bring back the joy on the face of football lovers in the country.
The increased participation of the national team at various youth and senior levels across Asia in the coming years was to prove vital for Pakistan’s reemergence on the international scene. However, politics would have a decisive say in what path the game followed. The increased televised coverage of world football, in particular the FIFA World Cup, on national television meant a bigger fan base was created but much more was needed to give the game a boost in the country.
Despite falling short for qualifying to the 1984 AFC Asian Cup finals, the mid 1980s began a sudden burst of regular international action that caught our footballers hard and fast.
Emergence of South Asian football competitions
The latter half of the 1980s saw Pakistan host the 3rd and 4th Quaid-i-Azam International Championships in the Aprils of 1985 and 1986. Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, North Korea were among the others invited to take part.
Most importantly, however, was football becoming a regular event in the nascent South Asian Games. After declining to send a football team for the first edition held at Kathmandu in 1984, Pakistan decided to take part in the 1985 event that hosted by Dhaka, Bangladesh. Pakistan won their group featuring Nepal (won 3-2), Maldives (won 3-1), and the hosts Bangladesh (lost 1-2) but failed to qualify for the final. Up until the mid-1990s, football at the South Asian Games was recognised as a senior level competition. Now, it is limited as a U-23 event.
That same year, the Asian Football Confederation brought back the Asian Champions’ Cup (also known as Asian Club Championship) for the club champions of Asia after a 14 year absence. The last event in 1971 was won by Israeli side Maccabi Tel Aviv who now play in UEFA region. PIA, having won the 1984 Inter Provincial Championship, was elected to become Pakistan’s first representative in Asian club football. They were placed in a tricky qualifying group for the 1985-86 Asian Club Championship hosted in Colombo, Sri Lanka and involving the winners from India, Bangladesh, the hosts, Maldives, and Nepal. Only Indian giants East Bengal qualified for the next round from the group as PIA finished 6 points behind in 4th place out of a group of 6 teams. The eventual winner of the competition was South Korea’s Daewoo Royals (Pusan) who beat Saudi side, and final hosts, Al-Ahly Jeddah 3-1 in late January 1986.
The subsequent Asian club participations, including the Asian Cup Winners’ Cup, didn’t bring much glory either as Habib Bank (1986-87), PAF (1987-88), Crescent Textile Mills Faisalabad (1988-89), and even a Punjab FC side (1989-90) could only get the odd points against weaker sides from Maldives or Nepal whilst being put to the sword by clubs from Bangladesh, Iraq, India, Oman in their qualifying groups.
This was an era where South Asia had become the permanent whipping boys for rest of Asia in both club and national team competitions. The increasing professionalism, fitness levels, coaching, and player awareness that had become ingrained in the rest of the Asian region meant that South Asia had miles to go.
After losing 2-0 in a friendly against Iran in Tehran in Feb 1986, Pakistan’s national team took part in 1986 Asian Games where they lost to UAE (0-1), Iraq (1-5, a penalty by Ghulam Sarwar ‘Teddy’), Oman (1-3), and Thailand (0-6). The tough draws against the well-established Asian sides certainly did not help but nevertheless it was some much needed practice for the boys. After Pakistan was knocked out by Nepal during qualification for 1988 Olympics in April 1987, the country hosted the 5th Quaid-i-Azam International Tournament in Lahore. A month later in October, Pakistan won bronze under the captaincy of Zafar Iqbal in the 1987 South Asian Games football tournament hosted by India. The team was coached by late German manager Burkhard Ziese who remained in charge from 1987 till 1989-90.
This was followed by more defeats in qualification for 1988 Asian Cup at the hands of Jordan (0-1), Japan (1-4), Kuwait (0-3) and qualifying group hosts Malaysia (0-4).
The year 1989 began with Pakistan’s first ever participation for the FIFA World Cup qualifying rounds for Italia 1990 in January-February. One wonders why Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) had been missing so many World Cup qualifiers for almost 40 years!
That being said, Pakistan had always been playing a vital role in the World Cups for many years before our actual participation. The sports goods industry of Sialkot had been providing millions of footballs around the world, peaking during World Cup seasons, since 1980. The Adidas ‘Tango’ balls used in the 1982 World Cup hosted by Spain was Pakistan’s major contribution to the beautiful game thanks to the hard work of Sialkot manufacturers. That tradition is still alive today and Sialkot is still a major contributor on the international market.
The qualifiers saw Pakistan teamed up against much stronger sides in Kuwait and UAE. They were easily knocked out one at a time by the Middle East giants. UAE eventually qualified for Italia 1990 as one of the two Asian sides alongside World Cup regulars South Korea. These defeats would be regarded as good practice as Pakistan hosted the 1989 South Asian Games later that year. The football team went on a brilliant run that eventually led to a gold medal win in the final over Bangladesh (1-0) thanks to a solitary goal by WAPDA’s Haji Abdul Sattar. In terms of international competitions, this was arguably Pakistan’s first ever football final victory at all levels. Football circles across the country celebrated this victory with great aplomb. Everyone called this the beginning of a brand new era for Pakistani football.
