Pakistan failed where Morocco excelled

The Men-in-Green faced the African side in 2015 and lost 2-0, which showed the difference was marginal

Morocco had a fairytale run in the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar to become the first-ever team from Africa to qualify for the semi-finals.

Fans and experts predicted that it would prove to be too easy for France to get past them to book a ticket for the final to face Lionel Messi’s Argentina.

However, after conceding the first goal early in the match, Morocco made a fabulous comeback and kept the Frenchmen under pressure throughout the second half, eventually losing the game 2-0.

After the disappointing loss, social media was flooded with praises for the Moroccan team, asking their players to keep their chin high as they had made the whole nation proud.

Morocco’s success was not a story of overnight success. It had years of vision, hard work and honesty, which took them to this level in the World Cup.

There have been photos circulating on the internet, comparing the facilities of the FIFA Goal Project in Pakistan and a facility established with private and government funds in Morocco. On one hand, the African nation invested the money carefully to establish a world-class facility for their players, while in Pakistan, the amount was just wasted.

The project, which now has five non-functional football fields around the country, was funded by FIFA. The facilities were asked to be built 20 years back.

One of those Goal Projects in Karachi was constructed with a hefty investment of $505,958, and it now gives the feel of a haunted vicinity with no facilities to offer to the footballers.

From 1999-2014, FIFA issued funds worth $ 2.377 million in Pakistan through its Goal projects. As per reports, this humongous amount of money is the 17th biggest investment made by FIFA in a country during the span.

Those projects were given to Pakistan as part of FIFA’s Goal Programme, the brainchild of former FIFA president Sepp Blatter, aimed at providing football infrastructure and facilities including pitches, technical centres, and youth academies for the development of the game.

The boundary walls of the Karachi Goal Project collapsed while making a pitch to play the sport was never part of the plan.

Another four Goal Projects, including the building of technical centres in Abbottabad, Quetta, Sukkur, and Jacobabad, were awarded to Pakistan in 2010 as part of FIFA’s assistance programme for the victims of floods that year. All those structures are in a sorry state.

In 2020, there were some speculations that FIFA was working together with the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) Normalisation Committee to revive the country’s Goal Projects that have been lying in ruins for the last several years.

Currently, only one Goal project is fully functional – the PFF House in Lahore, the country’s football headquarters. Other ones are just standing there.

Pakistan international player Saadullah Khan, keeping the dire situation in view, maintained that his national team is at least 35 years away from qualifying for the World Cup finals.

“Pakistan doesn’t have any international standard ground despite the funding,” said Saadullah while talking with Bol News. “Back in the day, players didn’t know and were less educated. Now, we all know how PFF used these funds.”

He pointed towards the circulated picture of a Moroccan football facility on the internet and alleged that football authorities in Pakistan do not invest anything in the right place, instead, the majority of the funds are embezzled.

“Everyone saw the picture in comparison with Morocco. We saw how they developed their infrastructure by utilising the funds appropriately,” he stated. “On the other hand, we are not letting go of anything, FIFA gave us funds to develop these grounds, and we did corruption with it.”

Saadullah said the game in Pakistan will continue to suffer because of the personal interests of the higher officials. He mentioned that footballers need different amenities in the ground to keep them in shape.

“When we attend national camps, we must have a gym, a swimming pool and other things as players are nurtured using these. Instead, PFF uses funds for conferences. It happens because they prefer their own interests over everything else,” he said.

The midfielder recalled that Pakistan faced Morocco approximately 15 years back and was close to ending the game in a draw but due to their keeper’s injury, the Men-in-Green conceded two goals.

“There was not much of a difference between Morocco and Pakistan. However, they worked on their system and in this World Cup, they defeated football giants like Spain, Portugal, and Belgium,” he mentioned.

The 28-year-old believes that all this is happening because no one was aware of the funds issued by  FIFA and the projects they wanted to work on in the 1990s to 2000s.

“Players and other people only got to know about these after 2008 or 2009. If these projects were built, we would have been playing at the highest level,” he added.

Saadullah stated that the football authorities in the country should take a leave out of India and other Asian countries’ books and learn how to establish world-class facilities.

He added that one should not be ashamed to learn from the neighbouring country and if not from the arch-rivals, then they must take some lessons from Japan.

“We don’t have to study Brazil or Germany. I have travelled to South Asian countries numerous times. Even a country like Maldives is working on football. They have top clubs and academies with different age groups. They have called foreigners to work in their system,” he enlightened.

The Pakistan international predicted that that day is not far when India will be playing in the FIFA World Cup and Pakistanis will be giving an example that we defeated them in a series in 2014.

He revealed that even clubs in India have better infrastructure than the national team of Pakistan.

“As a national player, we don’t have any grounds. If we practice at Punjab Stadium, we have to wait because an event is taking place at the premises. We don’t have any place meeting the international standards,” he said. “Neither Punjab Stadium nor Jinnah Sports Complex is of that standard. If you will visit their gym, you will see they don’t even clean it for months.

“Let’s not go far, the facilities of Bangalore FC in India are at par with our national players. We can’t perform because we do not have the means and just coaches cannot form a team.” he maintained.

He further quoted the example of India, where they have developed a sports university to teach sports to youngsters and also provide them with all kinds of facilities, adding that they organised the U17 World Cup.

Plus, their young players are in Germany, Brazil, or clubs like Bayern Munich for training. These footballers in five to six years will mature and bring them on verge of qualifying.

Also, they hosted the best South Asian football league, the Indian Super League, where some of the biggest names in the world participated. According to him, they are putting the pieces of puzzles in place for success.

Meanwhile, a few days back, some people talked about Pakistan’s chances of qualifying for the next to next World Cup if the authorities concerned start putting in the effort today. Saadullah does not agree with those claims.

“At least 100 years are required [for us to qualify],” he said. “I see people talking about playing the World Cup in the coming eight years, this can’t happen. If we have facilities like Qatar and start working today, still, we cannot confirm our spot in the coming 35 years.

“Here, one player is from Quetta, one is from Noshki, and the other is from another place. We expect them to spend a couple of months together and then compete with better teams.”

He further added that the need of the hour is to develop an environment where talent can blossom into world-class players. He claimed that there are youngsters in Pakistan that are naturally gifted enough to play for even the top leagues in the world.

“Until we don’t talk about development and long-term strategy, we cannot grow the game in our country,” he said. “We will have to make central zones in different provinces, employing eight coaches and include 500 kids in each. Slowly and gradually, we can make it, otherwise no chance.”

He stressed that there is a passion for the game and also talent in abundance, so this is not where the problem is. The issue lies in the lack of interest from authorities in promoting the game

“Passion for football is there. We see it in Malir, Lyari, places in Balochistan, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The passion couldn’t be translated into performance due to internal politics and the ones playing the game in the country are now hopeless.

“We have talent and products like myself who have played in international leagues like Maldives and Indonesia. I am not a product of an academy or a club, I used to play in Madarrasa, gave trial, and got selected.”

He recalled that when he played in a league in the Maldives in 2015, despite having teammates from Brazil and Spain, his coach praised his game, which was evidence of his talent.