Pakistan balls short on World Cup goals

Twenty years ago, Faqeer Hussain took pride in his work, starry-eyed that the balls he hand-stitched in a grubby backroom in Pakistan were destined for the world's greatest players. Gracing the pitch of World Cups in glamorous Western cities, Hussain saw beyond the grind of his job and dreamed of the beautiful game, and the players he admired but could never hope to meet. A decade ago, 70 per cent of the world's soccer balls were made in the Pakistani town of Sialkot, but footballs that Hussain stitches from leather panels today will be offside at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Outrage in the West over child labour and the onset of machine-made balls mean that the five million balls suppliers are readying for South Africa will be for training and promotional uses only.

I used to take a lot of pride in stitching soccer balls, because the world's best players would play with it but now it's only my job,” said Hussain, 58. As with countless other industries built on labour in developing countries, workers like him are at the bottom of the food chain. He says he gets the equivalent of 80 cents a ball, sold for 10 dollars (840 rupees) to international retailers who in turn make four times the profit. Sialkot gained international celebrity status when it produced the “Tango” ball for the 1982 World Cup inSpain, kicking off a lucrative industry. The town now manufactures sports equipment sold all over the world. For years it has been a beacon of commercial success in Punjab, where unemployment runs high and the Taliban have stepped up recruitment from the morass of disaffected youth in the south of the province.

But recession exacerbated by instability from Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked suicide attacks in the country, a crippling power crisis and a preference for machine-made balls, have hit the football cottage industry. China is where Adidas chose to produce the 2010 World Cup ball -- the thermally bonded “Jabulani”, which means “celebrate” in Zulu and billed on the FIFA website as “the most stable and most accurate Adidas ball ever”. Demand is not even 20 per cent of what it used to be,” admits Zia-ur-Rehman, chairman of the Pakistan Sports Goods Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PSGMEA). “We badly need government support. If it comes only then we would be able to keep the industry kicking,” he said.