Made in Pakistan football

Interestingly, Pakistan is known to be cricket mad and had shown hardly any interest in football as a result Made in Pakistan football national side is ranked 194 out of 211 countries by FIFA yet Pakistan has achieved the unprecedented excellence in manufacturing footballs that are used in the FIFA Football World Cup in Qatar with their replicas sold to fans worldwide. Football manufacturers in Pakistan are based in Sialkot where they work in collaboration with Adidas AG since almost 20 years. The football used in Qatar Football World Cup is known as Al-Rihla and manufacturers in Sialkot had made 5.5 million balls including 60,000 high-quality replicas of the balls used in matches only without the real-time technology helping referees with offside and line calls. Pakistan remains one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of soccer balls and Sialkot has a rich history of making soccer balls and other sporting equipment dating back to decades. Sialkot made more than 43 million balls valued at $19 million in 2021-22. About 8 per cent of Sialkot’s population of around 1 million people work in the industry and they, along with the residents of Sialkot, are rightfully proud of their achievement. TW

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