Football still needs Ufone

By Alam Zeb Safi
LAHORE: There was a time, not so long ago, when Pakistan’s football landscape laid shrouded in uncertainty. Internal conflicts engulfed the sport; legal disputes froze administrative machinery and the game that once pulsed through the veins of the youth fell dangerously still. Stadiums echoed with silence and the dreams of thousands dimmed as hope thinned across the footballing provinces of the country.
Amidst this bleakness, when the future of football seemed suspended between doubt and despair, it was Ufone that stepped forward with rare conviction. They chose not merely to sponsor but to engage, to uplift, to reignite the embers of passion in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, regions where football is not just a pastime but a living and breathing identity.
Their leagues, structured with thoughtful precision, embraced thousands of players: seasoned internationals, national-level competitors and raw local prodigies waiting for a single moment of recognition.
I witnessed this rebirth personally. In Peshawar’s historic Tehmas Khan Football Stadium, beneath its fading floodlights and amid the fervent chants of local supporters I saw something extraordinary, a corporate initiative conducted with the sincerity of a grassroots mission.
At the heart of it stood Ufone’s dedicated team, headed by a disciplined Amir Pasha, supported diligently by Sarfraz, Mubashir Fida and a few others who were always seen brimming with hope. Their professionalism was not the performative variety often seen in polished boardrooms; it was hands-on, empathetic and deeply human.
What struck me most was their care, an earnest attentiveness toward the players that even established professional structures in Pakistan seldom demonstrate. They treated the young footballers not as marketing assets but as sons of the soil entrusted to their stewardship. I saw them ensuring facilities, assessing needs, resolving small concerns and cheering for the athletes as though they were part of a single extended family.
For a few promising years, Ufone’s football movement flourished, then abruptly and surprisingly, it ceased.
This silence puzzled many. Yes, the sport was suffering nationally due to administrative paralysis but the passion of the people had never died. Football remained and still remains, the heartbeat of millions across Pakistan, from the narrow alleys of Chaman to the sprawling fields of Swat and Chitral. Ufone had planted something precious in those years and its absence was deeply felt.
Now as the tides begin to turn, with Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) elections completed and various national age-group teams re-emerging on the international circuit, the landscape once again looks fertile. Hope is returning to the dressing rooms, to the neighbourhood grounds, to the eyes of the young boys juggling battered footballs in dusty streets.
This revival calls for partners. It calls for torchbearers. And few have proven more capable than Ufone.
One of Ufone’s greatest contributions was its ability to uncover hidden talent from the farthest corners of KP and Balochistan, regions long neglected, yet brimming with potential. Many of those young men found their first taste of organized, dignified football because Ufone bothered to reach them.
The company possesses the organizational strength, the team, the vision, and most importantly the credibility to return. Not merely as a sponsor attaching its logo to an event but as a builder of footballing foundations at the grassroots level. And if there was ever a moment to revive that mission, it is now.
Youthful optimism has resurfaced. Footballing structures are being rebuilt. The environment is ripe for nurturing not just athletes but communities and dreams. Corporations that invest at this stage will not only uplift the sport; they will cement their legacy in the hearts of the people.
Pakistan’s football authorities, now stabilizing and forward-looking, should not only welcome such partnerships but actively encourage them. And I firmly believe they will.
Football is returning to Pakistan. All it needs now is for those who once believed in it, like Ufone, to believe again.