Every four years, the Fifa World Cup reminds us why football occupies a unique place in global culture. The 2026 tournament, jointly hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico, was historic in more ways than one. Expanded to 48 teams, it brought more countries into football’s premier competition than ever before, reflecting Fifa’s ambition to make the sport truly global.
Yet amid the celebrations, the unforgettable matches and Spain’s triumph over Argentina in the final, one question should have troubled every Pakistani sports fan: why is a country of more than 250 million people still nowhere near qualifying for the World Cup?
The answer cannot simply be that football is not popular in Pakistan. Anyone who has walked through Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar or Quetta during a World Cup knows otherwise. Restaurants remain open until dawn screening matches. Youngsters wear the shirts of Argentina, Brazil, Spain, England and Germany. Local grounds are packed with children trying to emulate Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe or Lamine Yamal.
The statistics alone are difficult to ignore. Pakistan is the world’s fifth most populous nation. Logically, such a vast population should provide an enormous reservoir of sporting talent. Yet countries with populations that would barely fill one of Pakistan’s major cities routinely qualify for football’s biggest tournament.
Croatia, with fewer than four million people, has reached a World Cup final and another semi-final in recent years. Iceland, with a population of under 400,000, qualified for the 2018 World Cup. Morocco, with around 38 million people, became the first African nation to reach the semi-finals in 2022, inspiring an entire continent. Pakistan has not even come close. Population alone guarantees nothing, but it should at least provide an opportunity. When that opportunity consistently goes unrealised, the problem lies elsewhere.
For decades, Pakistan’s football administration has been synonymous with dysfunction. Administrative disputes, competing factions, court cases and repeated Fifa suspensions have prevented the game from developing normally. At precisely the time when other countries were investing in youth academies, coach education and grassroots competitions, Pakistan was consumed by governance crises.
The consequences were severe. Talented young footballers lost opportunities to compete internationally. Development programmes stalled. International funding became uncertain. Entire generations saw their careers disrupted because administrators failed to manage the sport responsibly. Even though Fifa eventually restored normal administration, the years that were lost cannot simply be recovered overnight. The administrative failures are only one part of the story.
Pakistan has never developed the ecosystem required to produce international footballers. School competitions remain sporadic. University football is largely neglected. Professional clubs struggle financially. Domestic leagues receive little television exposure and even less commercial investment. Parents often discourage talented youngsters because football offers virtually no long-term career prospects. Without a proper pathway from grassroots football to the professional game, talent inevitably disappears.
Countries that consistently qualify for World Cups do not rely on luck. They build systems. Children are identified at an early age, trained by qualified coaches, provided with competitive matches and supported through every stage of their development. Elite football is the result of years of careful planning rather than occasional bursts of individual brilliance.
Another obstacle is the overwhelming dominance of cricket. Cricket has delivered unforgettable moments for Pakistan and deserves every bit of its popularity. But the country’s sporting priorities have become so heavily concentrated on one game that almost every other discipline struggles for attention, sponsorship and institutional support.
Successful sporting nations rarely depend on a single discipline. Australia performs at the highest level across multiple sports. England balances football with cricket, rugby and tennis. Japan has developed excellence in football alongside baseball. Pakistan can do the same.
Pakistan already possesses one essential ingredient that cannot be manufactured: passion. Football enjoys deep roots in communities across the country, particularly in Karachi’s Lyari, Chaman and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where generations have embraced the sport despite receiving minimal institutional support. These communities have repeatedly produced gifted footballers with little more than determination and natural ability. Imagine what might be possible if that raw talent were matched with proper academies, modern coaching, quality pitches, sports science, nutrition and consistent competition.
The expansion of the World Cup to 48 teams should have represented an opportunity for countries like Pakistan. More qualifying places have lowered the barriers for emerging football nations, making qualification more achievable than at any point in the tournament’s history. Yet Pakistan remains so far behind that even a larger tournament has done little to improve its prospects.
That should concern policymakers far beyond the sporting world. Success in international sport contributes to national confidence, strengthens diplomacy, promotes tourism and projects a country’s image internationally. Football, with its unmatched global audience, offers opportunities that extend well beyond the pitch.
Turning Pakistan into a World Cup participant will not happen quickly. It demands political commitment, competent governance, sustained investment in grassroots football, professional domestic competitions, better coaching structures and a long-term vision that survives changes in administrators and governments.
For too long, Pakistan has watched the World Cup as a passionate spectator rather than a genuine participant. Every tournament sees millions of Pakistanis cheering for other nations because they have no team of their own to support. That enthusiasm should no longer be accepted as inevitable. The World Cup should not merely be a spectacle Pakistan watches but a tournament Pakistan one day expects to play in.
The writer is a journalist based in Karachi. He tweets/posts @omar_quraishi and can be reached at: [email protected]
