162,000 footballs to be distributed among students, Scheme to kick off in January 2027
Abdul Jabbar Faisal
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Football Federation has formally launched the FIFA Football for Schools programme in Pakistan, targeting three million students through 3,000 public schools as part of an ambitious strategy to expand grassroots participation and establish a stronger football culture across the country.
More than 50 master trainers have completed their training under the guidance of FIFA instructors led by Antonio Buenano Sanchez, Senior Football for Schools Manager at FIFA. The launch event brought together senior PFF officials and representatives of FIFA, the Prime Minister’s Youth Programme and UNESCO.
Speaking at the press conference, PFF President Syed Mohsen Gilani said the target of reaching three million students through 3,000 schools was a conservative estimate, with the PFF intending to expand well beyond those numbers. As part of the rollout, 162,000 footballs will be distributed across the schools.
Acknowledging that infrastructure remains one of the biggest challenges facing football in Pakistan, Gilani said the programme was being introduced through public schools. FIFA developed the criteria for selecting schools and teachers, while school identification was carried out with the PFF’s partners, including the Prime Minister’s Youth Programme and UNESCO.
Gilani also underlined the role of teachers in making the initiative sustainable, describing them as new stakeholders, custodians and ambassadors for football in their communities. “Today is the last day of your course. Tomorrow is the first day of your mission,” he told the teachers and master trainers.
Antonio Buenano Sanchez, Senior Football for Schools Manager at FIFA, said the programme had the potential to have a “massive” impact on Pakistan’s youth.
Football for Schools has already benefited 154 countries, Sanchez said, with Pakistan now set to use a cascading model in which the more than 50 master trainers return to their districts and train additional teachers. This could create a network of around 450 trainers in a short period.
FIFA will also provide educators access to the Football for Schools app in Urdu.
“Talent is everywhere,” Sanchez said, stressing that children from every part of Pakistan should have the opportunity to develop their potential. With the right opportunities, he said, some could go on to represent Pakistan in the future.
“But this needs the right processes, the right systems,” he added, reaffirming FIFA’s commitment to building those systems with the PFF.
For PFF Chief Operating Officer Shahid Khokhar, the programme represents an opportunity to establish a stronger football culture in Pakistan and grow the country’s fan base, creating greater potential for the commercialisation and sustainability of the game.
PFF Technical Director Adeel Rizki said the trained teachers had been empowered to return to their districts and train others, with the current rollout representing only the first stage.
“This is the first stage, and we will slowly but surely increase the number of schools and districts that we are looking to bring into the programme,” Rizki said.
He said the next major step would be the FIFA Talent Development Scheme (TDS), scheduled to launch in January 2027, which will introduce a structured system for identifying and developing age-group talent emerging from initiatives such as Football for Schools.
Fuad Pashayev, Head of Office and UNESCO Representative in Pakistan, said football could be a powerful tool for youth development and social change, helping cultivate mental resilience and a sense of belonging. UNESCO will work with the PFF in 15 districts, using football to engage young people and promote social change.
Andrei Vashkevich, Senior Member Associations Development Manager at FIFA’s Dubai Office, said Football for Schools was designed to establish the foundations of a country’s football system through mass participation at grassroots level. He welcomed the revival of football activity in Pakistan and reaffirmed FIFA’s commitment to supporting the country’s football development.
Syeda Amna Batool, MNA and Focal Person for the Prime Minister’s Youth Programme, stressed the role of sport in developing children beyond the classroom and called for the programme to be genuinely inclusive, particularly by ensuring girls have opportunities to participate and develop through football.
Through Football for Schools, children across Pakistan will have the opportunity to develop not only footballing ability but also confidence, resilience, friendship and leadership, while the programme lays the foundations for a broader and more sustainable football ecosystem.
