In its early years, football in Pakistan was mainly dominated by departmental and armed forces teams, which hired footballers as employees and provided them with a basic wage to play for their sides and work full time in the off-season.[3] These government entities primarily used investment in sports as evidence of their Corporate Social Responsibility, with little incentive to develop talent or professionalise their set-ups.[4] Similar system was also prevalent in several countries such as the Soviet Union, and was abolished in these nations after the 1960s.[5]
After the introduction of the Pakistan Premier League in 2004, the domestic setup remained under severe criticism due to the continuous domination of departments in the domestic competition, which poached talented players from clubs without any transfer fees or compensation involved.[6][7] However majority of the departmental clubs were disbanded following the shutdown of departmental sports in Pakistan in September 2021 during the tenure of prime minister Imran Khan.[8][9][10][11] After Shehbaz Sharif took over the seat in 2022, departmental sports in Pakistan were restored in August 2022.[12][13] As of July 2023, only the armed forces, KRL, WAPDA and Police reportedly remained active in football.[14] Since 2023, departmental clubs became restricted to the PFF National Challenge Cup.[15][16]
