BENGALURU: After losing their 11th consecutive match, the last one against Kuwait, Pakistan are in danger of slipping further down the football index. The team's last win came against Bhutan in the 2018 SAFF Championship and since then they have endured tough times.
Even Nepal will be a tough opposition for Pakistan here on Tuesday as they prepare for their final match in this year's SAFF campaign. Nepal won last year when the two teams met in a friendly.
Pakistan, who are now trying to rebuild with the help of their Diaspora, have lost all the six matches played this year, managing to score just one goal. Head coach Shahzad Anwar is aware of the treacherous path ahead and said the upcoming World Cup qualifier would be a turning point.
"The World Cup qualifying game in October is important as Pakistan have never won a match in the qualifiers. This match will decide the future of football in Pakistan. If we win, our fans can look forward to six more group matches, home and away. We will also get to play the Asian Cup qualifier. If we lose, the next three years will be difficult," he said.
In the World Cup qualifiers in 2019, Pakistan lost their home match, played in Doha, and the away fixture in Phnom Penh, to Cambodia.
Anwar, who hails from Sargodha, near Lahore, said the root cause was the absence of a professional system. "Our problem is the lack of good clubs. We have only the institutional clubs (semi-professional) and we need to start a professional league like ISL. The growth of players is not possible if they only play for the Army, Navy and Air Force teams," he said, adding that there were 32 institutional teams, including Air Force, WAPDA (Water & Power Development Authority) and KRL (Khan Research Laboratories FC).
"We had a system in place in the past, we had youth development centres working with the help of the Asian Football Confederation but in 2015, problems began when FIFA suspended the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF). From 2015 to 2019, Pakistan football suffered as the assembly line vanished," the AFC pro licence coach added.
In the short term Pakistan are looking at players from their Diaspora like Otis Khan and Easah Suliman to help them. "They play in various leagues in Europe. Earlier, we had Zesh Rehman who played for Fulham and now it is Suliman. Rehman, a UEFA pro licence coach now with Portsmouth FC, led Pakistan in the SAFF Cup in 2018." Anwar said Pakistan were focusing on the youth in the long term. "Eighty percent of the players are U-23 in the current squad. We also have the U-16 trials now. Hopefully Pakistan's U-19 team will participate in the SAFF U-19 tournament," said Anwar, who took charge in 2021.
