SIALKOT: Pakistani football manufacturers are striving to catch up with the global trend by switching to machine-stitched soccer balls production. They hope to capitalise on the GSP-Plus facility by re-entering the sports circuit in Europe.

The city made its mark in hand-stitched footballs that were used by major teams in several countries. Safdar Sandal, a leading producer, told Dawn that some years back Sialkot-produced balls ruled because of their superior quality.

He informed that even today hand-stitched balls make up 45 per cent of the total market for footballs. Pakistan, he said, supplies about 85pc of the total market of hand-stitched balls.

He blamed difficulties in technology transfer among other problems for slow transformation. About 15 companies are setting up modern plants to match the changes in the sports market.

“At the moment, the machine-stitched footballs are being produced from PVC [polyvinyl chloride] material. A manufacturer fetched an order of 2.1 million footballs,” he said.

The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority has established Sports Industry Development Centre (SIDC) in Sialkot to upgrade the city’s sports goods to cope with emerging market challenges.

The city’s sports goods fetch exports worth $350m a year produced in small and medium units.