Pakistan football also needs its PSL: Kaleemullah

[Valar.]

Pakistan football also needs its PSL: Kaleemullah
Faizan Lakhani
Saturday Mar 14, 2020

Star footballer Kaleemullah has urged Pakistan's football authorities to follow the Pakistan Cricket Board's (PCB) lead and stage events similar to the Pakistan Super League (PSL) to nurture local talent.

Kaleem made those remarks while attending the Peshawar Zalmi versus Multan Sultans fixture of PSL 2020 in Karachi on Friday as PCB’s guest for the segment “Hamaray Heroes”.

“When you’re in professional league and you rub shoulders with top players from around the world, you get to learn a lot. It gives you exposure of top-level contests and also provides you an opportunity to understand the game’s intensity,” he told Geo News.

“We need such professional leagues in football as well. There are professional leagues everywhere in the world of football and it is high time that we get one in Pakistan as well,” he said, hoping that the Pakistan Football Federation would announce its plan of staging a pro league soon.

Meanwhile, the 27-year-old said that it was an honour for him to be invited by the PCB at one of the biggest stage of Pakistan sports.

“Cricket is widely followed and of course when you get recognition at such level, you feel encouraged. It is a great step by PCB,” he said of board’s initiative of Hamaray Heroes.

https://www.geosuper.tv/latest/4370-pakistan-football-also-needs-its-psl-kaleemullah

 

[Ahmet Pasha]

Iss bandey ko tmgha do

This guy should be given a medal for saying that.
Football is a much more popular worldwide and exciting game than tuk tuk cricket.

 

[jericho]

“We need such professional leagues in football as well. There are professional leagues everywhere in the world of football and it is high time that we get one in Pakistan as well,” he said, hoping that the Pakistan Football Federation would announce its plan of staging a pro league soon.

Could be statement of the year in terms of sports in Pakistan, IMO. If only someone sane in the relevant positions listen to this, I really hope sports other than cricket gets attention in Pakistan. We were world champions in squash and hockey in the past. Squash is almost dead in Pakistan (taken over by mainly Egyptians in the international scene) and hockey team isn't doing anything great at the moment. More sports such as football, tennis, squash, hockey, will only be good for the country.

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

Funding is driven by viewers if there are no viewers no League will happen
No interest in Football in Pakistan

Hockey
Football
Basketball
Volley Ball

All sports suffer because no National Pride in that arena left

 

[Maxpane]

1000% agree

 

[masterchief_mirza]

It's doable but would need some up front European/UK Pakistani origin professional interest (there are one or two in lower leagues) to actually coordinate with European and UK clubs and get some biggish names over. Maybe premier league stars is not possible....but retired stars, championship footballers, 2nd/3rd tier footballers certainly. Add some Asian names from far east and middle east and it could work.

I'd gladly pay the subscription to watch it.

 

[Kaniska]

Pakistan should focus on reviving 2 sports, apart from cricket, for which they have rich history. One is hockey and other one is squash. I hope your corporate will invest money in these 2 sports to revive it.

 

[Pakistansdefender]

We don't have a single world class football stadium. Atleast we have world class cricket stadiums.

 

[Indos]

We don't have a single world class football stadium. Atleast we have world class cricket stadiums.

You need to build strong team for two most popular sport in the world which are football and basketball. There should be a professional league for those sports.

 

[Pakistansdefender]

You need to build strong team for two most popular sport in the world which are football and basketball. There should be a professional league for those sports.

Ofcourse we just came out of war. These things take time..
We are barely doing the right things now for future.
And everything depends on money. You have a board which has money and stadiums and then leagues and then further. Up until now you have not taken cricket to schools as done in other countries. This is what we call ground root level.
Things take time. Because Pakistan is a very very complex country to govern. With enemies on 2 sides and stretegic challenges and media taking one line, corruption rampant, elite capture, institutions not working, opposition consists of sick minded people who want choas, mullahs rampant. So it's all together a deadly combination. Slowly slowly things would fall in place when we would have enough money to spend on our football..

 

[jupiter2007]

You need to build strong team for two most popular sport in the world which are football and basketball. There should be a professional league for those sports.

Football maybe because there are already football clubs. Football can be promoted in Pakistan if government is willing to invest in the sports.

Basketball is an indoor sports and we don’t have proper infrastructure and our awaam has no interest in it. We rank 165 in the world because our government don’t care.

 

[Hiraa]

Football brings in more revenue than cricket (Worldwide). Should have been our second priority as sports after hockey.
hopefully in my lifetime I hope to see pakistan football team getting somewhere internationally.

 

[Indos]

Ofcourse we just came out of war. These things take time..
We are barely doing the right things now for future.
And everything depends on money. You have a board which has money and stadiums and then leagues and then further. Up until now you have not taken cricket to schools as done in other countries. This is what we call ground root level.
Things take time. Because Pakistan is a very very complex country to govern. With enemies on 2 sides and stretegic challenges and media taking one line, corruption rampant, elite capture, institutions not working, opposition consists of sick minded people who want choas, mullahs rampant. So it's all together a deadly combination. Slowly slowly things would fall in place when we would have enough money to spend on our football..

Your football team is not too bad actually, you only loose 0:3 to a strong team like Vietnam in the last Asian Games in Jakarta. Not getting international stadiums is not really a problem if you guys improve your football competition quality. In Indonesia, local city subsidize their own football team. Only our basketball league who are independent financially and get money from private enterprises and rich basketball club owners.

Pakistan actually has also potency to be strong in basketball since your physical is quite big. India basketball team for instant rely on Punjabi people and can have strong team where Pakistan side of Punjabi are bigger then India. Other Pakistan regions are also relative having taller people compared to South East Asian and South Indian people.

Football maybe because there are already football clubs. Football can be promoted in Pakistan if government is willing to invest in the sports.

Basketball is an indoor sports and we don’t have proper infrastructure and our awaam has no interest in it. We rank 165 in the world because our government don’t care.

Sadly I can't see any games played by Pakistan basketball team in Youtube. Look like this sport is really neglected by the government. You guys actually have potency in this sport.

Indonesia economy is in the same size with Pakistan 20 years ago but we still can have good football and basketball competition at that time. Of course we also dont spend any penny for cricket like Pakistani do but we have badminton with world class players just like Pakistani cricket players.

 

[313ghazi]

Football in Pakistan should follow 2 models;

1. The model of American college football (i know it's a different sport). They have semi professional leagues between schools and inter-state and national championships. The top players get picked for professional contracts.

2. Claire Fontaine model of France. A national football academy, sweeping up talented young players, giving them a full education and full time football coaching, grooming them to be professional footballers.

3. Once the talent starts feeding through into the crappy domestic league, only then will standards improve. Meanwhile the league could do with some commercialization to try and improve it. No point following the Indian model of paying for expensive european pro's who are retired. West Africa produces some of the worlds best footballers - they do it by focusing on the youth.

 

[Haris Ali2140]

Forget Football at the moment, first take care of Hockey.