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| World Cup Brazil 2014 ball - Brazil 2014 soccer ball - Brazil soccer ball 2014 |
Pakistan to
Produce FIFA World Cup Balls
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| Forward Sports Owner Sialkot Pakistan |
Pakistan may
be known as a cricketing nation but not many know that the soccer balls for the
upcoming FIFA World Cup in Brazil
will be imported from the 159th-ranked football nation.
When World Cup's Chinese supplier Adidas
failed to keep up with the demand of soccer balls in Rio de Janeiro, a report
in 'Express Tribune' said that a Sialkot ball manufacturing company then
stepped in and got the contract.
Factory owner Khwaja Akhtar, who has made balls
for the German Bundesliga, French league and the Champions League, is excited
with the challenge of being a part of World Cup soccer history.
"It was when I felt the roar of the crowd
at the 2006 World Cup that I dreamt of a goal of my own: to manufacture the
ball for the biggest football tournament on the planet," Akhtar said.
"The people were chanting all around me. I
just thought, this is the real thing. I was part of the crowd. I never had that
kind of feeling before," added Akhtar.
Sialkot, a town in eastern Pakistan,
was once the unassailable soccer ball production capital of the world --
exporting about 30 million balls a year, an estimated 40 percent of global
production -- but India and China have
recently caught up.
In December 2013, Brazil unveiled the latest soccer
ball for the 2014 edition -- the Brazuca -- on the official FIFA World Cup
website.
The Brazuca features a striking new design and
new panel system. Six identical interlocking panels make up the ball's
synthetic surface, thermally bonded to keep out moisture.
The month-long tournament, which kickstarts on
June 12, has 32 of the worlds best sides locking horns in the most watched
event in sports.
Sialkot ball maker to fulfill
World Cup dream
SIALKOT: It was when he felt the
roar of the crowd at the 2006 World Cup in Germany that Pakistani factory owner
Khawaja Akhtar first dreamt up a goal of his own: to manufacture the ball for
the biggest football tournament on the planet.
“The people were chanting all around me. I
just thought, ‘This is the real thing’,” Akhtar told Reuters. “I was part of
the crowd. I never had that kind of feeling before.”
His factory in Sialkot had made balls for the German
Bundesliga, French league and Champions League, but he had never snagged a
World Cup contract.
Last year he finally got his chance – but
only 33 days to make it happen.
When Akhtar heard last autumn that Adidas’
Chinese supplier for the World Cup couldn’t keep up with demand, he immediately
invited executives to his plant.
Their first visit was not a success.
“They said ‘You have Stone Age equipment,”
said his oldest son, Hassan Masood Khawaja, laughing. “After they left, my
father called a meeting and said: ‘This is our only chance. If we show them we
can’t do it, we’ll never get another chance again.’”
It usually takes six months to set up a
production line, but the factory only had a month – Adidas, the German sports
equipment maker, was in a hurry. So Khawaja designed, made and moved the
equipment into place within 33 days. Everything had to be done from scratch.
“It was hard, maybe the hardest thing I’ve
ever done,” he said over the noise of the hot, hissing machines.
But it was a success, and the firm’s
previous investment in thermal bonding technology paid off. Only thermally
bonded balls – made using a glue that reacts with heat – are round enough for
the World Cup’s strict standards.
Cobblers to the British
A leading force in world cricket, Pakistan is a
mere also-ran in football, where it ranks just 159th in the world. But Akhtar’s
factory, where men and women in bright, flowing robes move plastic ball panels
from machine to precision machine, is part of a long tradition of Sialkot football makers.
Local legend tells of a poor cobbler who
made his fortune by repairing the punctured footballs of colonial-era British
soldiers, then studying how to make them himself.
He was so successful that soldiers all over
the region started buying from him. Business blossomed – but so did child
labour.
A series of scandals, and changing
technology, forced many factories to close. Others had to clean up their acts.
These days foreign brands frequently inspect
Sialkot
factories that make their footballs. Large signs on Akhtar’s factory walls
sternly proclaim that child labour is forbidden and unions are allowed.
Workers that Reuters spoke to privately
confirmed that conditions were good – the salary was mostly minimum wage,
around $100 a month, but social security, life insurance and transport were
extra benefits. A small government hospital sits on the premises.
In the past 40 years, Akhtar’s own family
business, called Forward, has grown from 50 men to 1,400 employees – nearly a
quarter of them are women.
Some wear the niqab. Others flaunt bright
sandals with imitation jewels and wear robes the colour of tropical birds.
Almost all say they are the first woman in
their family to work.
Shakila Ashrafi, a 38-year-old mother whose
long beige coat reached down to her ankles, said one of her first purchases was
a television.
When the World Cup kicks off in Brazil on June
12, they plan to invite their neighbors – all avid cricket supporters – to
come and watch the strange foreign game being played half a world away.
“We will bring everyone together to see the
match,” she said, her busy hands pausing for a moment. “I want them to see what
we make and where the balls go.”
