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.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 . This year, however, we would no longer be kicked around on the FIFA World Cup soccer fields.
