Pakistan to Sit Out 2010 FIFA Football World Cup

Unlike the 2006 FIFA World Cup, when Pakistan was represented in each and every game of the world’s premier sporting tournament - in the shape of Pakistani manufactured footballs - Pakistan will be missing in action at the 2010 FIFA Football World Cup that starts in South Africa later this week. This year’s official match football for the World Cup - Jabulani or Jo’bulani (manufactured by Adidas and meaning ‘to celebrate’ in Zulu - will come from China, not Pakistan.

Pakistani footballs, of course, have a long history of being kicked around in Football World Cup tournaments. From the iconic Telstar (which was the first designated official game ball, at the 1970 Mexico World Cup and then at the 1974 World Cup in Germany) to the even more iconic Tango (the official ball of the 1978 and 1982 World Cups in Argentina and Spain), and even at the last World Cup in 2006 in Germany, hand-stitched, high-performance from Pakistan - really from Sialkot - have been the preferred choice for Adidas, the official providers of match balls to the FIFA World Cups.

No longer so, it seems. Indeed, from once commanding as much as 85% of the world’s market in footballs, Pakistani manufacturers now believe that they will supply no more than 30-40 percent of the footballs sold around this mega-event. Pakistan, of course, is not a football power at all - ranked 165th out of 202 countries in the world. But like everywhere else, football fever can get high in Pakistan too (here and here). This year, however, we would no longer be kicked around on the FIFA World Cup soccer fields.

This should be read not just as a matter of national pride, but as yet another sign of the changing global economic landscape, Pakistan’s sliding economic fortunes, and a need to focus more deeply on Pakistan’s enterprise-level economic structures than we often do.

The most commonly cited reason for Pakistan’s dwindling football fortunes is the use of child labor in the football industry. Even though the practice is now far less than it used to be, there are still instances of it and the stigma has lingered. In this particular case, technology may also have a lot to do with it. The new ball is being described in technological rather than craft terms: “The newly developed “Grip’n’Groove” profile provides the best players in the world with a ball allowing an exceptionally stable flight and perfect grip under all conditions. Comprising only eight, completely new, thermally bonded 3-D panels, which for the first time are spherically molded, the ball is perfectly round and even more accurate than ever before.” And, of course, Pakistan’s security situation also must have had some impact in perceptions.

An good overview report of the football manufacturing industry in Pakistan was recently published in The Express Tribune:

Soccer or football is the most popular sport in the world. And for many, this means great economic opportunity. At one time, Pakistan’s export city of Sialkot was catering to 85 per cent of the total world demand for high-quality hand-stitched inflatable balls.

A workforce of 85,000 was employed to produce 60 million balls per year worth $210 million. In Fifa World Cup years the demand for stitched balls rises by 70 per cent. Consecutive governments however, ignored this industry and failed to plan ahead to tackle the growing competition from China, India and Japan.

For a long time this vital industry also faced criticism from European countries and especially from United States with allegations of using child labour. The Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry took prompt measures to curb child labour from the soccer ball industry in accordance with the Atlanta Agreement signed with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Unicef in February 1997.

It is estimated that some 93 per cent of child labour was progressively eradicated from this vital industry and necessary steps were taken to provide social protection to children and their families. The children who were associated with this industry were provided with good schooling. The vital steps taken by the soccer manufacturers and exporter were highly praised by the then United States President Bill Clinton in the address at the ILO convention at Geneva in June 1999.

The Sialkot football industry has been contributing millions of export dollars to the national kitty but in the year 2006 the industry’s share in the international market took a significant hit with the entry of new players in the market, notably China and India. Manufacturers from these countries were able to supply balls at a much cheaper rate.

According to industry sources, local soccer ball manufacturers have been able to grab around 30 to 40 per cent of the total orders floated globally for the upcoming Fifa World Cup. This is a sharp decline from the 70-80 per cent bagged during the 1998 and 2002 World tournaments. The local football industry earned $164 million in export earnings in the financial year 09, as against an average of $221 million per annum earned during financial years 2005-08. Power and gas shortage are not making it any easier for the industry, and sources say that a number of business have failed to meet deadlines which has dented their reputation.

Technology was also a major factor in tilting the balance against the local industry. The penetration of machine-made balls hit the Sialkot hand made stitched soccer industry.

And in the present scenario of fast growing globalisation hand-stitched balls will not be able to compete with machine-made footballs. It is important that the local industry moves forward and embraces new technology to meet the needs of the international market.

Industry sources also say that China has received large export orders of footballs from a number of countries ahead of the June 2010 Football World Cup. Pakistan Sports Goods Manufacturers and Exporters Association is rightly concerned over this state of affairs.

According to Arif Mehmood Sheikh, a former chairman (PSGMEA) the shift of a large number of orders to China should serve as an “eye opener” for every one. He said that the factors behind the diversion of export orders to China was a combination of rising cost of production and inability to meet deadlines, which in turn were caused by rising POL prices and unreliable power supply. This has made it difficult for Sialkot exporters to compete with manufacturers in China, India, Nepal and Thailand.

With the government looking for new avenues to bridge the fiscal deficit and the trade deficit, it is very important that measures be taken to build upon the advantages that Pakistan holds in the global market, and not allow others to encroach upon them. 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, likewise enforcing suitable measures to encourage the export of hand stitched fooballs.

Outdated manufacturing techniques still in use by the local industry is a major hurdle in enhancing exports. This industry for its survival is in dire need of advanced technology and early provisioning of skilled labour. The Sialkot manufacturers and exporters have realised that in the event of a change in the global trend from hand stitched balls to mechanically stitched balls they will also need to make the shift.

In order to cope with the menace of machine made balls, the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority has at put in place the final steps for the establishing of the Sports Industries Development Centre. It is expected that this project worth Rs435 million will enable the Sialkot sports manufacturing industry to adopt modern technology, without which there is no going forward.

Sad as this situation is, I intend to follow the World Cup in South Africa, as will so many other Pakistanis. Probably no where more so than in Lyari - a community whose passion for soccer is boundless.

Salute All Cars, Kids. It’s a Rule in China.

Du Bin for The New York Times

Children in China obeyed a county rule for pupils to salute cars.

By SHARON LaFRANIERE

Published: October 25, 2009

Correction Appended

HUANGPING, China — All the students at Luolang Elementary School, a yellow-and-orange concrete structure off a winding mountain road in southern China, know the key rules: Do not run in the halls. Take your seat before the bell rings. Raise your hand to ask a question.

Education officials promoted the saluting edict to reduce traffic accidents and teach children courtesy. Critics, who have posted thousands of negative comments about the policy on China’s electronic bulletin boards, beg to differ. “This is just pitiful,” wrote one in a post last year. Only inept officials would burden children with such a requirement rather than install speed bumps, others insisted.

This is hardly the only nation where local bureaucrats sometimes run a bit too free. But in China, where many local officials are less than well trained and only the party can eject them from office, local governments’ dubious edicts are common enough that skewering them has become a favorite pastime of China’s Web users. Even the state-run media join in, although they rarely report who was behind the rules or suggest that they indicate a lack of competence to govern.

Often, the skewering gets results. In April, one county in Hubei Province in central China drew nationwide ridicule after officials ordered civil servants and employees of state-owned companies to buy a total of 23,000 packs of the province’s brand of cigarettes every year. Departments whose employees failed to buy enough cigarettes or bought other Chinese brands would be fined, the media reported.

County officials said the increased revenue from the cigarette tax would buoy the local economy. After several weeks of embarrassment, Gongan County officials posted a short message on the government’s Web site that read: “We have decided to remove this edict.”

Officials of Hanchuan, a city in Hubei Province, tried a similar ploy, with the same effect. Determined to boost the local brand of baijiu, a sinus-clearing distilled clear liquor, they ordered state workers to buy a total of about $300,000 worth in a year. Reporters calculated that each employee would have had to buy three bottles a day to meet the quota. The rule was later rescinded.

Another county in Guizhou Province in southern China compelled state workers last year to help inflate the number of tourists visiting the ruins of an ancient village. Every government office was ordered to organize field trips to the site so the county could report 5,000 visitors within two months.

The involuntary visitors had to take several buses to get to a village 20 miles from the county seat. From there, they hired motorcycles to carry them another nine miles down dirt roads, the newspaper Guangzhou Daily reported.

The Guizhou Commercial News reported that some government offices were left unattended while state employees served as tourists. The next month that order, too, was repealed.

But a 2003 regulation that bars male officials in Sichuan Province from hiring female secretaries may still be on the books. China Youth Daily reported then that the official who initiated the regulation wanted “to ensure that work can be carried out.”

An official in the Communist Party’s provincial office said in an interview that she was not aware of a written rule.

No one ever precisely pinned down the origin of an order this May to kill all dogs in the town of Heihe, on the Russian border in the far northeast. Media reports suggested one town official became irate after a dog bit him as he strolled along a river. But the official refused to confirm that.

Town leaders organized teams of police officers and ordered them to beat to death any dog who ventured into a public space. China National Radio, a state-run agency, broadcast the citizens’ outrage. “When we need to walk our dogs now, we have to first go out and look for cops,” one dog owner lamented.

Scholars say the proliferation of such regulations stems from a lack of professionalism among some local officials.

The Communist Party has been trying in recent years to correct these problems by providing better training and more channels for public feedback. Party schools that groom officials now stress administrative skills as well as ideology. Job evaluations are supposed to be based on concrete results.

Some local officials who used regulations to bilk the public have been dealt with harshly. The party secretary of Feicheng, a town in northeastern China, was fired after imposing a fine of $73 on any farmer who cut down a corn stalk without a license. Farmers complained that they could not harvest their corn without fear of being penalized.

Officials of China’s 637,001 villages seem especially prone to excess regulatory zeal. Until being overruled by higher-ups in 2005, for instance, officials of a village in Chongqing forced unmarried women to pass a chastity test before receiving compensation for farmland appropriated by the government. They argued that only virgins deserved compensation.

In comparison, Huangping County’s policy of roadside salutes is arguably benign. Education officials say compliance is strictly voluntary. Asked whether they follow it, elementary students here tend to burst into nervous giggles.

The rule’s purpose is twofold: to keep children safer on the county’s corkscrew mountain roads and to teach manners. Nearly 30 schools are located along roads without sidewalks or speed bumps. Signs posting speed limits are few and far between; virtually no signs indicate a school nearby.

Long Guoping, deputy chief of the county education bureau, said those measures were coming. “Little by little, the government is installing them,” he said. In the meantime, the salute “might avoid some accidents,” he said. “It allows the drivers to notice the children and the children to notice the drivers.”

Luo Rongmei, who teaches first grade at Luolang Elementary School, is all for it. “Since they started saluting there has not been one traffic accident,” she said, as the students ran and shouted in the yard.

Guo Yuozhang, 63, whose grandson attends the Luolang school, said he was more ambivalent. If the cars come from one direction, “that is not too bad,” said.

Cars coming in both directions is a bigger hassle. “Sometimes they are just turning in circles and they get kind of stuck,” he said. He spun around to illustrate the point, smiling slyly.

Xiyun Yang and Sun Huan contributed research from Beijing.

Correction: October 29, 2009
An article on Monday about the dubious rules issued by local bureaucrats in China, so common that ridiculing them is a pastime of China’s web users, included several errors. A school in southern China where students are required to salute every passing car as they walk to and from school, in order to instill courtesy and reduce traffic accidents, is Luolang Elementary — not Luolong or Loulong.

Hubei Province, where last April officials required civil servants and state workers to purchase large quantities of Hubei brand cigarettes to increase tax revenue, is in central China, not northern China. And Heihe, a town where last May police were ordered to club to death all dogs found in public spaces, is in northeast China, not northwest China.