Former Pakistan captain Saddam Hussain believes only way to revive football in the country is to hold fresh and fair elections in the football federation

The game of football in Pakistan is yet to be valued. The year 2022 had little progress just like the previous years. Players are still deprived of primary resources and their search for a livelihood continues.

Uncertainty, lack of interest, poor planning and many other factors have led to destruction on pretty much every front. Amidst all this, the global football governing body, FIFA, lifted Pakistan’s ban this year and so, the country’s international team returned to action.

Due to this, the Pakistan Women’s Football team ended an eight-year hiatus with their participation in the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship. The return was commendable, given that Pakistan had been out of international football action for a while, as they suffered a narrow defeat from arch-rivals India but managed to finish the tournament on a winning note with a dominating 7-0 victory over the Maldives in their last fixture.

After the women, the Pakistan men’s football side also marked their return to the international circuit as they took on Nepal in a friendly match in November. The Men in Green fought hard but the game ended in a narrow 1-0 defeat.

On the other hand, progress has also been made toward the elections of the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) as per the Normalisation Committee (NC) Chairman Haroon Malik.

According to the committee, football activities have been making rapid progress in the country and will gradually help Pakistan football and footballers earn their fair share of worldwide recognition.

Additionally, ever since Najam Sethi’s appointment by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif as the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to revive the 2014 constitution of the cricket board which empowers departments and regions, there has been a ray of hope that other sports can also benefit from this to redevelop their departmental sides.

Saddam Hussain, the former captain of the men’s national football side who is also an ambassador of the Prime Minister Talent Hunt Program to identify young talent, hailed PM Shehbaz for making efforts to revive departmental sports after it was shut down by the former premier Imran Khan.

“PM Shehbaz Sharif has taken a great step in reviving departmental sports and in the coming days, we will see progress,” he said while talking to Bol News. “Many departments have opened while some are working out on their financial aspects.

Talking about the objective of the PM Talent Hunt Program, Saddam was of the opinion that it will help identify a number of players who will eventually go on to join the national team.

“The initiative of the Talent Hunt Program will form 25 teams and the players from it will also become part of the national side in the future,” he said. “When they will play in the department, they will earn a livelihood and manage their bread and butter. Some players are doing different jobs to make ends meet while the others have just gone out of sight.”

Highlighting that the talks of grassroots work are baseless as it requires intention and will, Saddam further maintained: “We can’t talk or even start work at the grassroots level at the moment. Will we compare ourselves with China? Laying out 50,000+ academies, classes in schools, etc. We are far away from this, we don’t even have a single international ground of the highest quality,” said Saddam.

He was also critical of the scenario and believes that matters of the game in the country must finalize soon so that the players can have some source of income to maintain their passion and hunger.

“The biggest mistake is not giving respect and value to the players. A foreigner is honest in his job while people here do not have the hunger to do something better for their kids and the country,” said Saddam.

“PTI Government’s policy of shutting departmental sports resulted in many players being unemployed but no one stood up for it. Sadly, I don’t see a prosperous future of the game here.”

He added by saying: “Players like me, who had a golden run, played leagues across the world, are striving for jobs as there isn’t any official league. If any player commits suicide, the federation and departments who fired him would be responsible.”

Saddam also blamed FIFA for being corrupt and demanded that NC organise fair elections soon to form a constitutional body for the game in the country.

“FIFA itself is a corrupt organisation and they don’t want things to get better,” he said. “Agents look to make sizable profits and players suffer.”

While further discussing the football situation in Pakistan, Saddam said: “I recently posted that nothing will change if a fair election doesn’t occur. I would rather not name people for their rights and wrongs but there should be an official football league for the players so that the departments can continue.”

He also boldly called out the NC for being centered on making money only and failing to make fast progress to hold elections.

“NC has taken 17 months and I can’t even count how many crores they have earned. I have been playing since 2009 and have yet to earn even 1.5 crores as a captain. I was handed a salary from which I managed my expenses and nutrition, but I haven’t receive it from last three months and other players are suffering,” he said. “Players give their prime years to football and the country and in return, they don’t get anything. They invest everything and they get a national player tag only.”

The 29-year-old footballer also urged local bodies to learn from neighbouring countries if there is something that they are doing better than us.

“Reality is if it benefits us, we must learn from enemies too. India has worked on their infrastructure and club football,” he added. “If we can organize a PSL-type league here it will be great. But looking at the current state of affairs, this looks impossible as everything is pretty much chaotic.”