Lahore, (Sports Reporter) Pakistan took a landmark step in grassroots football development today as Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan, Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Youth Program (PMYP), performed the groundbreaking ceremony for the country’s first-ever FIFA Arena pitch in the Subzazar area of Lahore.
The ceremony brought together government officials, football administrators, and community leaders in a moment that marks the arrival of international-standard football infrastructure on Pakistani soil and the beginning of what organisers described as a broader, nationwide rollout.
The FIFA Arena initiative was brought to Pakistan by Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) President Syed Mohsen Gilani, whose discussions with PMYP leadership set the project in motion. President Gilani traced the origin of today’s groundbreaking to the Prime Minister’s vision and the enthusiastic endorsement it received from Rana Mashhood from the very first conversation.
"This is a historic day,” said President Gilani. "When we first had discussions about the FIFA Arena with Rana Sahib, he was so supportive and asked us to start from his constituency. Today we have fulfilled a promise we made to him. This is just the start, more pitches are on their way.”
The PFF President also pointed to the momentum building across Pakistani sport and diplomacy. "Our girls recently won 8-0 in their first outing at a FIFA event. When the leadership of the country is showing such vision, implementation gets easier when you have leaders like Rana Sahib.”
President Gilani also promised that more dreams will be realized through football for the next generation: “When our children watch television, they watch football being played on pitches just like this one that we are building. I am very proud to say that what used to be on TV is now a reality in Pakistan.”
Rana Mashhood used the occasion to make a commitment of his own — that Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif will personally inaugurate the pitch upon its completion. He framed the project as part of Pakistan’s larger transformation on the world stage.
"The next Pelés, the next Maradonas, the next Martas… they will all come from Pakistan, carved in pitches like these,” said the PMYP Chairman. "The real journey of growth starts at the grassroots, and this pitch will go a long way towards ensuring that.”
MNA Hafiz Nauman credited both the Prime Minister and the PMYP Chairman for their foresight in channelling youth energy through sport. "Credit to Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and PMYP Chairman Rana Mashhood for having the vision to innovate ways and means of engaging the youth in productive activities,” he said, adding that he was open to offering additional schools as future FIFA Arena sites.
Naveed Ahmed Lodhi, Vice President of the Punjab Football Association, welcomed the restoration of community sporting infrastructure. "This is something we had in our youth, but it was disappearing,” he said. "Rana Sahib is bringing it back.”
Jawed Dogar, Additional Inspector General and PFF Congress Member, speaking as a resident of Subzazar, said simply: "I’m proud to see this project come to life.”
The FIFA Arena is a standardised, FIFA-endorsed small-sided pitch format designed to expand access to football at the community level. Pakistan’s first installation in Subzazar signals not only a commitment to the game’s growth but to the principle that world-class football can and will begin at the neighbourhood level.
