Pakistan was caught in another controversy on Tuesday (September 16) after Japan issued a warning for allegedly sending over a “fake” football team. According to reports, Japan authorities have also sent back Pakistan’s 22 men who pretended to be professional football players. The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) said that the Pakistan squad left from Sialkot airport using fake documents and players also claimed to be part of a football club, but Japanese officials quickly found out that the documents were fake and deported all of them.
The FIA investigators found this as a major human trafficking racket and named Malik Waqas as the main suspect for this scandal. He was also arrested by the agency and a case was also registered against him at the Gujranwala police station. He reportedly created a fake club called Golden Football Trial and trained the players to act like real and charged each member nearly PKR 4 million ($14,156.91) to facilitate their travel. Waqas also admitted that he had earlier smuggled another group to Japan using the same method.
Now, the FIA is investigating the fake football club and the fake papers that helped the group to leave the Pakistan. A further investigation is on, they added.
This scandal comes at a controversial time for Pakistan sports, as the country is already under controversy after a heavy loss in the Asia Cup 2025 and the recent “handshake row” with India. Speaking on the Asia Cup matter, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) claimed that the match referee Andy Pycroft told both the team captains not to shake hands before or after their match in Dubai.
This Asia Cup cricket match was the first between the two teams since the Pahalgam attack this year in April, when some gunmen opened fire on a group of tourists in Kashmir.