Around 70 per cent of the world’s football is produced by this city
When the sport of football comes to our mind, we usually associate it with European and American countries, given that football has a more significant presence on those two continents. However, you will be shocked to learn that a small Asian city produces the maximum number of footballs in the world – a city that has nothing to do with the sport.
Sialkot, the 12th largest city in PAK, produces more than two-thirds of the world’s football. It is merely 133 kilometres from Amritsar in Punjab, India.
The official and exact number is unknown, but the city has over 1,000 football-producing factories.
Nearly 60,000 workers work in the factories, stitching the balls with their hands to make them more durable and aerodynamic.
While most of the balls are sold at an expensive price, the workers receive only $0.75 per ball, according to a report by The Business Standard. In Sialkot, 20,000 rupees is the minimum living wage, but the workers don’t earn more than 10,000 rupees.
Al Rihla, the official ball of the FIFA World Cup 2022, was also produced in Sialkot.
