PAKISTAN’S under-16 football team deserves to be lauded for clinching the South Asian Football Federation title recently in Kathmandu. In a crunch-match situation, the boys in green defeated regional India in the final and claimed first-place glory, delivering some measure of solace to a sports-mad country that has seen better days on and off the field. Footballers in Pakistan may not enjoy a high profile or top-level facilities that come the way of cricketers and hockey players but the sport itself is immensely popular, especially among the less privileged sections of society. In theory, a victory such as the one recorded on Wednesday bodes well for the future, and the fact that it came against India made it all the more memorable for many Pakistanis.

The victorious team has since been awarded a generous award of Rs3m by the Pakistan Football Federation, and rightly so because these talented youngsters need all the incentives that may be on offer to take football in this country to a higher level. Top government and state officials, multinationals and philanthropists have also been requested to come forward and recognise what is undoubtedly a significant achievement. Hopefully, the cash award will be delivered soon, unlike past cases where winning athletes have been offered much but endlessly left in the lurch. Here it must also be asked why many Pakistani sportsmen tend to perform well at the junior levels but fall behind their foreign counterparts as they grow older. The answer is this: they need to make a decent living doing what they love most, be able to meet the nutritional needs of top sportsmen and have ready access to quality training facilities. Such shortcomings have over the years cost us a number of future stars in several disciplines and remedial measures are in order.