KARACHI, Dec 16: Football lovers and stakeholders of the game in Manghopir have appealed to the government to save the Meher Sports Football Club ground — popularly known as the Manghopir football ground — from the local land mafia.

The historical ground, said to be the playing field of many great footballers of repute since over 70 years now, has been in danger of being leveled and destroyed ever since the date palm gardens, guava and chiku orchards surrounding it were taken over by the local land mafia in 2010.

“We knew that it was only a matter of time when the destruction would spread in this direction,” said Abdul Ghani, a sports organiser associated with District Football Association (DFA), Karachi, while speaking to Dawn on Friday.

“Destroying the ground in favour of a housing scheme would be a real shame as besides being a source for sports and recreational activities the field also happens to be a historical asset,” he pointed out. “It has been here even before Partition.”

The Manghopir area comes under the jurisdiction of DFA Karachi, which has five clubs registered with it. Meher Sports FC is the oldest of the five clubs while the other four are Manghopir Star FC, Manghopir Union FC, Manghopir National FC and Zahid Sports FC.

Meher Sports FC was one of the four initial football clubs in Karachi. This club, which has the field as its home ground, has been represented by many football legends of Pakistan over the years. National football team skipper (late) Captain Omar coached its players as well as played for it on invitation.

Other legendary names of the game include internationals Ustad Dad Mohammad Baloch, Master Amin Baloch, Abbas Baloch and Ali Nawaz Baloch, who have all been a part of the action here during the 1970s.

The 1980s saw more teams in the form of departmental outfits such as KPT, PIA, NBP, KESC, Railways and PPWD making use of the ground while featuring in annual soccer tournaments here besides, the other visiting teams from interior Sindh and Balochistan.

“It is a very famous landmark, known for its hot spring with medicinal powers and the Manghopir mausoleum featuring the crocodiles. The land grabbers’ motive is obvious. On being confronted, they have even produced documents of ownership for the surrounding land that comes to around three acres. But all their papers look fake to us,” said Ghani.

“Besides, they don’t show ownership of the four-acre playing field but we were informed by them that the ground is a part of their ancestral land. Well, where were they for the last 100 or so years when this place was being used for holding football matches?” The organiser asked.

“It is a well-maintained green grassy pitch. There have been crowds of over four to five thousand gathering here during a match. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have any stands as the government never took an interest in developing the ground. But we had put up strong wooden goal posts at both ends to replace the old bamboo bars that had been here since even before Partition.

“Today our goal posts have been destroyed with gravel and cement and marble slabs being dumped in its place. We are going to lose our beloved ground if Governor Sindh Dr Ishrat-ul-Ibad Khan, Chief Minister Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Provincial Minister Nadeem Bhutto, the administrator of Gadap Town, etc., don’t step in to stop this hooliganism now,” he appealed.