Football is among the most popular team sports in Pakistan, together with long time number one cricket and field hockey.

British evangelist Theodore Leighton Pennell played a crucial role in introducing football to the North-West Frontier Province (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) in the last decade of the nineteenth century.

[7] Shining Club Kohat became the first outstation team to win the North-West India Football Championship 1937 in 1937, defeating Government College Lahore 1–0 in the finals.

[14] However, the country hosted the Ismail Gold Shield Football Tournament which featured teams from India, Iran, Ceylon, along with others.

[19][20] The 1960s resulted in the first incipient golden era, which saw one of the finest players to ever grace the field in Pakistan football history.

Most notably in 1963, whilst on a world tour, Bundesliga side Fortuna Düsseldorf had to make an emergency stop in Pakistan due to aircraft problems, leaving them stranded for a few days.

The PFF invited Fortuna to tour East and West Pakistan playing friendly matches against select XI sides.

The national team bounced back, when several months later they took Gold at the 1989 South Asian Games, beating Bangladesh 1–0 in the final.

Azhar later ousted PFF General Secretary Hafiz Salman Butt (a Member of National Assembly of Jamaat-e-Islami) in 1994 due to political rifts and alleged abuse of power.

[31] Under Hafiz Salman Butt, the 1992–93 and 1993–94 seasons of the National Football Championship structured on a proper league-style basis and spread over a number of months.

[32] Butt also managed to get a three-year sponsorship deal with Lifebuoy Soap, with amounts of 35 million PKR spent in the organisations of the seasons and televised through the country.

[30][33][31][34] With Butt's dismissal in 1994 and ban by FIFA in 1995, Pakistani football declined again into an era of mismanagement and long-lasting lack of sponsors in the upcoming years.

Faisal Saleh Hayat-led Pakistan Football Federation, which was internationally recognised, started the league and non-FIFA recognised Ashfaq Hussain Shah group, which formed a parallel PFF, coming into power by third-party interference through the PFF elections conducted by the Supreme Court.

[47][48][49][50] After the suspension once again from all football activities by FIFA on 7 April 2021,[51][52] the 2021–22 season was initially organised by the Ashfaq Hussain Shah group, who again came to power after attacking and taking charge of the PFF office.

[55] On 27 July 2023, the draw for the first round of the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification took place in which Pakistan were drawn once again against Cambodia, followed by the appointment of the English coach Stephen Constantine.

[58] On 6 February 2025, the federation was suspended again by FIFA due to its failure to adopt a revision of the PFF Constitution that would ensure truly fair and democratic elections as part of lifting the previous suspension.

Lyari, a neighbourhood in Karachi, holds an important place in Pakistan's football landscape due to its historical and cultural ties to the sport.

Dating back several decades, Lyari has been a consistent source of football talent, contributing significantly to the national sports scene.

[68] The grassroots football culture in Lyari emphasises skill and community engagement, with local clubs and tournaments acting as catalysts for talent development.