Pakistan

Early years (1950s)

Shortly after the creation of Pakistan in 1947, the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) was created, and Muhammad Ali Jinnah became its first Patron-in-Chief. PFF received recognition from FIFA in early 1948. Following the conclusion of the inaugural Inter-Provincial Football Tournament in 1948, the Pakistan Football Federation planned to send a national team to compete at the 1948 Summer Olympics. However, for reasons that remain unclear, the team ultimately did not participate in the tournament.

In 1950, Pakistan embarked upon a tour to Iran and Iraq. The national team faced Iran in their first official international game in Tehran on 27 October 1950, losing the game 1–5, with Abdul Wahid Durrani scoring the lone goal. The match also took place during the Shah of Iran's birthday celebrations. Reportedly the Pakistan national team played the match barefoot, which was the norm back in South Asia. Pakistan also engaged in unofficial friendly matches during the tour, losing against Tehran's Taj by 1–6 scoreline and drew 2–2 against a team from Isfahan. The following month, the team toured the country of Iraq, where due to the Iraq Football Association's inability to gather a full national team, Pakistan played an unofficial friendly against the club Al-Haras Al-Malaki, which resulted in a 1–1 draw.

Pakistan's next international outing came in the 1952 Asian Quadrangular Football Tournament. They finished as joint champions alongside India after finishing with the same points in the table. Pakistan was awarded the shared trophy for the first six months after winning a coin toss. The same year, Pakistan played a friendly against Iran in home venue, with the match ending in a goalless draw.

During the early 1950s, Pakistan played internationally in the following Asian Quadrangular Football Tournament editions which were played in Burma in 1953, India in 1954, East Pakistan in 1955. The team made its first appearance at the 1954 Asian Games in Manila, Philippines, where on 2 May 1954, Masood Fakhri had most notably become the first Pakistani player to score a hat-trick in an international match, as Pakistan thumped Singapore 6–2 in a group match. However, Pakistan failed to advance out of the group stages, after losing to Burma.

The Pakistan Football Federation became one of the 13 founding members of the Asian Football Confederation on 8 May 1954. Initially scheduled to play against Israel in the inaugural 1956 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers, the team withdrew along with Afghanistan due to reluctance to host the Israeli team. The same year, the team toured Ceylon, Singapore, and China, and two years later featured at the 1958 Asian Games held in Japan.

In 1959 after a tour to Burma, Pakistan finally decided to participate in the 1960 Asian Cup qualifiers hosted by India in Kerala, where Pakistan faced Iran, India and Israel twice each in the qualifiers. Although Israel managed to qualify by topping the group, Pakistan achieved memorable victories over Iran by 4–1, as well as a win over arch-rivals India by 0–1, and managing to secure a 2–2 draw against Israel, finishing in third place in the group, ahead of hosts India, and behind Iran and Israel.

Emergence (1960s)

Pakistan had participated in various friendly tournaments in the early 1960s, with the Merdeka Cup hosted in Malaysia after the country first participation in 1960. Pakistan recorded a 7–0 victory over Thailand, and a 3–1 win over Japan. Two years later in the 1962 Merdeka Tournament, Pakistan ended runner up after falling to Singapore by 1–2 in the final.

During the China national team tour in Pakistan in 1963, the first test in Dhaka in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) ended in a 0–0 tie. The second match in Peshawar ended in a 3–2 victory for Pakistan, with the third fixture in Lahore ending in another 1–1 draw. The final fourth match in Karachi ended in a 2–0 defeat for Pakistan. The 1964 Summer Olympics qualification the same year included a 4–1 loss in Iran and a 1–0 win in Pakistan. Pakistan visited China in 1964 playing several test matches against local sides, including a 2–0 victory against the China national team.

In 1965 after a tour to Ceylon involving several test matches, they played in the inaugural 1965 RCD Cup and finished third. In the 1960s, the national team also hosted several teams from Soviet Union and Dallas Tornados for unofficial test matches. In March 1967, the national team played a four-match test series against Saudi Arabia in Lyallpur, Sukkur, Hyderabad and Karachi, winning and losing once, and drawing twice. Months later, Pakistan lost their Asian Cup qualifiers against Burma and Cambodia and drew their final match against India. Pakistan also entered the 1968 Merdeka Tournament, but did not feature in it, withdrawing earlier before the tournament started.

They then hosted the second 1967 RCD Cup and finished third. In 1969, they travelled to Iran to take part in the 1969 Friendship Cup, in which they had a 2–1 win against Iraq and a record 9–1 defeat by Iran. This was before another disappointment at the 1969 and 1970 RCD Cup editions.

Despite the game's growth in the 1960s, Pakistan did not actively participate in the Asian Games football tournaments held in 1962, 1966, and 1970 due to financial constraints. The World Cup qualifiers followed a similar pattern, with Pakistan missing crucial matches because of a lack of interest from the federation and insufficient government support.

Dark era (1970s)

Following the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, East Pakistan became the independent nation of Bangladesh. This separation also led to the loss of the Dhaka First Division League, which had provided a higher standard of competition than was typically found in West Pakistan, often drawing leading players from West Pakistan and functioned alongside the National Football Championship as a key competitive platform.