Thread by @Rehan_ulhaq

Thread: The never ending plight of Athletes in Pakistan.

Whenever a major international event comes along, a bunch of officials (ppl in actual positions of power) come forward with the most absurd & unsustainable solutions >>

Lets start with the general ill-informed discourse. Many believe cricket is the reason other sports don’t flourish in Pakistan. It couldn’t be further from the truth. Cricket fund has literally got nothing to do with any other sporting budgets >>

So why is it that Pak’s athletes can’t compete at international level. For starters, ppl who win medals at these events have larger individual salaries than the entire budget of Pakistan’s athletics >>

Can Pakistan increase the budget? Even that is a secondary question given the funds (already minimal) are returned. People in charge have zero idea about the needs of athletes or any information about how sports marketing works >>

Why don’t private investors fund sports boards like in India & some other countries? There is literally no stability, no guarantee. So one investor was interested in football, PFA was suspended, since then they have completely lost interest >>

So lets hypothetically say, u as an investor, wanting zero return, want to market/invest in athletes. Firstly there is too much redtape too deal with. Then the people u deal with are boomers with zero idea of broadcasting, marketing etc >>

What’s the solution? Firstly actual sports professionals need to be running these boards. From specialist ops to finance to marketing people. Then a long term plan needs to be made, minimum vision of a decade >>

Ideally it should be something like mission Olympics 2038, realistically target medals then. Before that all the effort should go into marketing & facilities for different sports boards >>

This is just the tip of the iceberg, the problems run far far deeper. A thread isn’t enough to either highlight these issues. This is just to give a general idea of some extremely basic facts.

So for now when a Pak athlete, despite all these odds, does relatively well, please enjoy & promote their success. A thousand officials will come forward to take credit but remember, the athlete & their close support group are the ones who deserve all the praise. NO one else

Boomers will tell stories of pak’s hockey doing well hamare-time-pai BS. Problem is the entire world moved on, u are still stuck in ur time. Yahan 10 rupay ki facilty athlete ko nahi dein gai laikin boomer officials yeh zaroor keh dein gai inko social media nahi use kerna chahye

During the Olympics, Tiktok & other platforms were used to market different sports & athletes all across the world. Yahan marketing ki jagah yeh discuss ho raha tha “tiktok ban ker deni chahye, yeh hartay hi is liye hein”. Kuch nahi tou apni discourse ka level hi improve ker lo

U want brands to invest, market themselves to raise money for the sport yet u don’t want SM use by athletes. How insane are you? Surely you see the dissonance or are these officials actually that stupid?

Quickly turning into a rant. However, if we can get so worked up, can’t even imagine what athletes go through mentally. Hats off to those who put their heart & soul into their sport despite knowing they will get next to zero basic facilities or support.