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Due to international bans, political infighting, corruption and plenty more besides, there has been genuine equality in Pakistan for much of the past decade. Neither the male or female national teams have played much. Indeed, from 2014 to 2022 the women had no fixtures at all. However, the female Green Shirts are making up for lost time, helped by a bunch of British-born players.
An 8-0 defeat would not usually be the start of something special but that is what happened in qualification for the 2026 Asian Cup in June and July. That thrashing came against Chinese Taipei, who are ranked 42 in the world, 119 places above Pakistan. Next up were Indonesia, then ranked 95 and the tournament hosts, and Pakistan won 2-0. Qualifying ended with a 2-1 victory against Kyrgyzstan, then ranked 136 in the word, and a second-place finish. In the end only the top team from the group qualified, but for Pakistan that represented a huge step forward for a new-look side.
The long lack of domestic action robbed Pakistan of a generation of players, hence the need for and importance of British-born players, one of whom is Layla Banaras. “I was contacted when I was 13 or 14, but I felt I was too young to play for the national team,” said the 19-year-old Birmingham native, who plays for Lewes in England’s third tier. “They contacted me again this year as they had the Asian Cup qualifiers coming up. I thought: ‘Why not? This is perfect timing.’” Banaras’s parents agreed. “My dad is Pakistan heritage and my mum is white British and she was over the moon. My dad loves the cricket team and everything about Pakistan, and he thinks it is amazing.”
Banaras’s first training camp also represented her first visit to Pakistan. “It helped to go with other girls,” she adds. “I travelled with Maz and we got quite close.” Maz is the Wrexham forward Mariam Mahmood. She also turned down earlier approaches from Pakistan before deciding in the summer that the time was right. “I was going with girls who had never been before so we didn’t know what to expect but we were all excited about the challenge,” said the 21-year-old.
“Sticking 24 people in a room with a language barrier is sometimes not easy at first but as the camp went on and we trained together, there was no divide and we integrated,” Mahmood says. “I made friends for life over there. I really enjoyed it. Everything was good, the food, the training, the kit – everything.”
Bonds were quickly made off the pitch but, on it, they took a little more time. “I didn’t go in with any expectations,” Mahmood says. “The first game was a learning curve, but we went into the game with Indonesia with a lot of fight, we got a good start early on and then it was all about sticking together as a team. We then had the confidence against Kyrgyzstan.”
“Football brings people together,” adds Banaras. “More games will only make us better. We have gone up in the world rankings [to 154] and we can keep going better. We had a camp in Pakistan for a week so we didn’t have much time, so to do what we did was amazing.”
The next step is more games, more training, more investment, more everything. “The PFF [Pakistan Football Federation] have appointed a new president, we met him and he told us his plans and that is to create a league in Pakistan for both men and women,” Mahmood said. “I hope we have the funding to have more camps and friendlies and to keep playing football”.
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