Pakistan’s Sialkot is famous for producing the finest quality of sport goods
Pakistan’s prepared footballs going to be used for the upcoming FIFA World Cup 2018, the supply of the top-quality footballs to be resumed after a gap of more than 10 years.
Russian Ambassador to Pakistan H.E Alexey Dedov made the announcement that Russia will be using Pakistani footballs in matches of the 2018 FIFA World Cup scheduled to be held in Russia.
Ambassador Alexey Dedov said that Pakistan is one of the most renowned countries in the world in the manufacture of sports equipment especially footballs and we want to enhance our cooperation with Pakistan to other sectors as well.
Sialkot was the leading producer of hand-stitched footballs in the world serving almost every football nation via world’s renowned brands and has been used in various football tournaments across the world.
According to Pakistan Sports Manufacturers and Exporters Association, Sialkot-based football ball manufacturers grabbed around 30% cent of the total orders globally for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
This, however, was a setback, as the Sialkot had bagged 70-80% of the orders during the 1998 and 2002 World tournaments, and the 2006 FIFA World Cup footballs were hand-stitched in Sialkot.
In 2014 World Cup in Brazil Pakistan supplied footballs for use in all 64 matches because of Pakistan finest quality of sports goods especially footballs.
Earlier the Sialkot exporters have urged the government to come up with some sort of trade-related package to stop the diversion of football export orders through the Trade Development Authority.
They further said to the federal government to announce more relaxation in exports and enforcing suitable measures to encourage the export of hand-stitched footballs.
According to the latest survey, Pakistan is exporting about 30 million balls a year, an estimated 40 percent of global production but India and China have recently caught up.