The Ministry of Commerce announced that Pakistani city of Sialkot will manufacture footballs for use in matches of the 2018 FIFA World Cup
Sialkot-based sports goods manufacturing firm Forward Sports will manufacture the official football Telestar 18 of the 2018 Cup.
Forward Sports had also provided the footballs for FIFA World Cup 2014.
Pakistan exports around 40 million footballs a year and that from July 2017-April 2018, the total revenue of the football exports exceeded 122 million dollars.
The Telstar 18 ball was chosen as the official football for world soccer’s showpiece event.
Pakistan exports about 40 million soccer balls annually, according to Ministry of Commerce figures.
In 2017-18, the value of the exports was $122 million, 10 percent higher than in 2016-17.
Pakistani famous thermo bonded footballs will be used in the World Cup matches.
Millions of football lovers will give good cheer on their favourite teams at the 2018 FIFA World Cup to be held in Russia this summer.
Pakistanis will have a specific reason to rejoice, although the 198th-ranked football nation will not be participating in the mega event.
Pakistan’s famous footballs will be used in the World Cup matches, making over 200 million Pakistanis feel their existence in the historical event.
Russian Ambassador to Pakistan Alexey Dedov confirmed earlier in the week that his country was going to use Pakistan-made footballs for the World Cup matches.
Located on the outskirts of northeastern Sialkot city, workers at a local sports company – which is a contracting manufacturer of global sports brand Adidas – are working extra hours to ensure on-time delivery of the footballs.
The city, which borders India, has been famous for producing finest quality sports goods and has been supplying footballs for a lot of events for a long time.
The football that will be used in the upcoming tournament is technically termed as thermo bonded, which was first introduced in the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
Before that, Pakistan had supplied hand stitched football for almost all the World Cups from the 1990s to 2010.
Other types of footballs produced in Sialkot are glued balls and hand stitched balls.
Thermo bonded balls are made by attaching the panels through heat – the latest technology adopted by Adidas and transferred to Forward Sports in 2013.
Pakistan football team will not be participating in the forthcoming World Cup, but its presence will be felt in all the matches
According to the Pakistan Sports Goods Association, the country will export around 10 million footballs across the world this year.
It is revealed that more than 10 million footballs would be exported from Pakistan.
Pakistan football team will not be participating in forthcoming World Cup but its presence will be greatly felt in World Cup matches because of footballs produced in Sialkot named, ‘Telstar”.
Sialkot made footballs were used in FIFA World Cup 2018.
It is a great honour for Sialkot that business community and craftsmen engaged with sports goods were making adequate efforts to keep the national flag higher and higher.
The international buyers were busy to secure their supply chain, building strong and long term business relations with local exporters.
In 1980 Sialkot gained international celebrity status when it produced the “Tango” ball used in FIFA World Cup in 1982 which led to further growth of Soccer ball industry of Sialkot.
The success story of Sialkot based industries based on the unmatched skill and craftsmanship of local workers.
The soccer ball industry was shocked when mechanized ball was used in world cup matches.
In order to protect the soccer ball industry, the federal governments had set up Sports Industry Development Centre (SIDC) for modernizing soccer ball industry and resolve the problems confronted by the industry.
According to a rough estimate there are more than ten thousand cottage industries, producing sports goods and related products in Sialkot.
Pakistan’s sports products industry is one of the reputable industry in the world, but due to lack of government support for businesses this business is facing severe challenges in today’s competitive business environment.
The Industry is still improving. Pakistan has earned $37.808 million from exporting footballs during the first quarter of the current fiscal year 2017-18 which saw an increase of 8.53 percent as compared to the previous period last year.
According to the data acquired from Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the country was able to earn $34.837 million by exporting footballs during the last fiscal year 2016-17.
Taking into consideration about quantity, total football exports surged by 19.91 percent during the period July-September (2017-18) as compared to the previous period July-September (2016-17).
As many as 92,52,000 footballs were exported during the first quarter of the current fiscal year as compared to exporting as many as 771,6000 footballs during the same period last year.
Similarly, on the year-on-year basis, football exports from Pakistan have increased by 18.74 percent in September 2017 as compared to the corresponding period of the last year.
Total football export revenue was recorded $7.830 million in September 2016 whereas it was recorded $12.296 million in September 2017.
Pakistan made footballs are loved around the globe, in FIFA world cup 2014 Pakistan produced and supplied Adidas Brazuca balls for the event, also in several events Pakistan had been supplying official match balls.
Pakistan can go beyond the limits for producing sports goods if careful attention and support are provided by the government, the industry has a potential to generate 10 times more revenues than the current export revenue.