India, Pakistan in football diplomacy
Joint team to play exhibition match in New Delhi in February next year
Dubai: Sports diplomacy will come to the fore when India and Pakistan form a team to play an exhibition football match against yet-to-be-announced opponents in February next year.
The initiative is the brainchild of Pakistan football team captain Kashif Siddiqi through his Football for Peace foundation. It will be the third encounter on the ‘Goodwill Match Series’ that was announced during the course of the Peace and Sport Forum Dubai 2013 earlier this week.
The first match will be held in Dubai on September 21, with the UAE taking on Pakistan, followed by the second match in Santiago, Chile in December.
“I am good friends with the India team captain Sunil Chetri and this match will be a unique experience for players from both countries as we will be playing in one team against the team comprising UN ambassadors for sport,” Siddiqi told Gulf News.
The Pakistan skipper said that the match may evolve into a longer goal of setting up an academy in India that will highlight the cultural links between the two neighbours. “This is something of the vision that I have for the two countries,” Siddiqi related.
Over the years, even though the two South Asian nations share historic, cultural, geographic, and economic links, their relationship has been plagued by hostility and suspicion.
And over time, both governments have used sports events, particularly cricket and hockey series, to try and bring the two neighbours together. In tennis, the ‘Indo-Pak Express’ of Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi made history by turning up as ‘Peace and Sport Ambassadors’ following their loss in the men’s doubles final at the US Open a couple of years back.
“Fingers crossed, everything will work out to our advantage this time. Hopefully we will try and avoid all these issues that have surfaced in the past,” Siddiqi said.
Siddiqui also left Dubai as an option for staging the match, should it hit any sort of roadblock with the two nations. “We can also think about a similar match in Dubai. The Dubai Sports Council has been so accommodating with everything that we have suggested. Over the next few months we are going to find out what the outcome will be,” he said.
“The football federations of India and Pakistan have been very supportive so far as well,” he added.
