Pakistan's First FIFA Match Today: U-15s vs Gambia

Today is the day Pakistani football has waited decades for. At 3:30pm PKT this afternoon, Saturday, October 24, 2026, Pakistan's Under-15 team walk out in Baku, Azerbaijan, to face Gambia — the first time any Pakistani team, at any age level, has ever played a match at a FIFA World Cup event. Whatever happens in the 40 minutes that follow, this is a genuine landmark for the sport in this country, and every Pakistani football fan should know why it matters.

Small-sided football is at the heart of the Baku festival: fast, technical and built for young players. (Illustrative photo: Wikimedia Commons)

A first that has taken decades

Pakistan's football story is full of near-misses and what-ifs, but one fact has always stood out: despite being one of the world's most football-loving nations, Pakistan had never appeared at a FIFA tournament. The senior team has never qualified for a World Cup, and no youth team had ever reached a FIFA event either. That changes today.

The Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) confirmed the squad on October 16, and the team flew out of Islamabad for Baku on October 20. Head coach Ihsanullah Khan finalised a 14-player travelling party after a 21-player training camp that began in Lahore on October 6. Every player in the squad earned his place through performances at the PFF National U-17 Championship earlier this month — this is a team picked on form, not favour.

The PFF has described the tournament as a landmark moment in the country's football history, and it is hard to disagree. For a football nation that has spent decades on the fringes of the global game, walking out at a FIFA tournament is the kind of moment fans remember for years — the equivalent, for this generation of young players, of a first Test cap or a first Olympic appearance.

The match: Pakistan vs Gambia, 3:30pm PKT

Pakistan open their campaign against Gambia in Group AD, a six-team group that also includes Cyprus, Jordan, Nigeria and South Sudan. The opener is a sprint, not a marathon: festival matches are played eight-a-side, in two 20-minute halves, on a smaller pitch of 68 metres by 47 metres with full-size goals. There is little time to settle, little room for a slow start — and that is exactly the point of the format, which is designed to maximise touches, decisions and match experience for players born in 2011 or 2012.

What should fans expect from the Gambia game? Honesty demands a note of caution: this is Pakistan's first match at this level, against unfamiliar opposition, in an unfamiliar format, thousands of miles from home. The result matters, but it is not the whole story — and the festival's structure means no single result ends Pakistan's tournament. Every team keeps playing until the final matchday, whatever happens in the qualification stage. So today's opener is best watched as the start of a week of learning, not a one-match verdict on Pakistani football.

Pakistan's 14 young Shaheens earned their places through the National U-17 Championship. (Illustrative photo: Edward N. Johnson, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY)

Pakistan's full group schedule

Pakistan's qualification stage is brutally compressed: five matches in three days, with double-headers on the second and third days. Here is the full fixture list, all times in Pakistan Standard Time (PKT):

Date	Opponent	Time (PKT)
October 24	Gambia	3:30pm
October 25	South Sudan	1:45pm
October 25	Cyprus	8:30pm
October 26	Jordan	12:30pm
October 26	Nigeria	7:15pm

That schedule tests more than football ability. Recovery, squad rotation, sleep, nutrition and mentality all become part of the challenge — which is precisely why the experience is so valuable. Few 14-year-olds anywhere in the world will ever play five internationals in 72 hours. Every one of these young Shaheens will come home tougher for it.

The 14 young Shaheens

Here is the full squad travelling in Baku, as confirmed by the PFF:

• Shayan Abdul Jabbar Marwat
• Muhammad Salman
• Muhammad Alam
• Maqbool Ahmed
• Shahraz Khan
• Rameez Riza
• Ameer Hamza
• Muhammad Mustafa
• Ilhan Khan Ali
• Bakshi Hamal Khan
• Owais Faiz
• Zain ul Abideen
• Danish Masih
• Kaleem Ullah

Fourteen names, most of them unknown to the wider public today. If this week goes well, some of them will not stay unknown for long. That is how youth tournaments work: they are where future senior internationals are first spotted, and where a country's football public first learns the names it will be chanting for the next decade.

How the festival works: no early exit, six tiers

The FIFA U-15 World Cup & Festival 2026 is the first edition of a brand-new FIFA competition, and its format is deliberately different from a traditional World Cup. A total of 191 FIFA member associations are taking part, split into 32 groups, with nearly 1,000 matches played across six matchdays, mostly at Baku's Hovsan Competition Complex, where up to 20 matches can run at the same time.

Teams first play four or five round-robin qualification matches — Pakistan play five. Results then place each team into one of six performance tiers for a second stage of four or five more matches. The winner of each tier is crowned a champion of that tier, with the Tier A winner taking the overall FIFA U-15 World Cup & Festival title. The tier finals take place at Baku Crystal Hall on October 30.

Baku Crystal Hall will stage the tier finals on October 30. (Illustrative photo: Wikimedia Commons)

FIFA's Chief of Global Football Development, Arsène Wenger, has explained the thinking behind the event: "Talent exists everywhere, but young players do not always have the same opportunities to test themselves internationally. This tournament is about providing them with that opportunity." The idea is simple — at this age, the most important thing is to play, against different styles, different cultures and different levels of opposition, and to learn from every one of those games.

The first edition is for boys' teams, with a girls' edition planned for 2027 and both tournaments set to become annual events from 2028. Pakistan are in on the ground floor of something FIFA clearly intends to grow — and that early involvement matters for a country trying to rebuild its footballing pathways.

What success looks like this week

It is tempting to measure this week only in wins and losses. Resist that temptation — at least for now. For Pakistan, success in Baku should be judged on three things:

First, competitiveness. Can the young Shaheens stay in games against varied opposition, adapt to the 8-a-side format, and show the technical quality that got them picked? A narrow defeat in which Pakistan create chances and learn is worth more than a comfortable win against weak opposition.

Second, development. Do players come home better — fitter, smarter, more confident — than when they left Islamabad on October 20? The PFF has framed this trip as an investment in the future of Pakistan football. The return on that investment will be visible over years, not days.

Third, the tier they reach. The qualification results decide which tier Pakistan enter for the second stage. The higher the tier, the stronger the opposition — and the bigger the test. Whatever tier it is, four or five more matches against international opposition await, and that is the real prize of this format: nobody goes home early.

Why this week matters beyond Baku

Pakistani football has lived through long years of administrative turmoil, suspensions and missed opportunities. The sight of a Pakistan team at a FIFA event — in green, on a global stage, against teams from Africa, Europe and Asia in a single week — is a small but real sign that the pathway is functioning again. Domestic competition (the National U-17 Championship) fed a national camp, which fed a squad, which is now playing FIFA football. That chain, from local pitches to the world stage, is exactly what a functioning football system looks like.

There is also a message here for the thousands of young players watching back home. Until today, a Pakistani child dreaming of a World Cup had no Pakistani example to point to. From 3:30pm today, they do: 14 teenagers from their own country, playing FIFA football in Baku. Role models do not have to win the whole tournament to change what a generation believes is possible.

So follow the result this afternoon, by all means — but follow the week. Check the PFF and FIFA updates after each match, watch how the team responds to the double-headers on October 25 and 26, and see which tier Pakistan reach for the second stage. The score against Gambia is the first line of the story, not the last.

Today, Pakistan finally play at a FIFA World Cup. That sentence alone is worth celebrating — and these 14 young players deserve every bit of support Pakistan's football fans can give them.

Sources: GeoSuper, WE News English, The News, A-Sports, Tapmad, FIFA U-15 World Cup & Festival announcements via GhanaSoccernet, Weekly SA Mirror, Idman.biz and Sierra Leone Monitor; 2026 FIFA U-15 World Cup & Festival (Wikipedia). Photos: Wikimedia Commons (Football Mini by Sururiyah; Soccer Kids by Edward N. Johnson, CC BY; Baku Crystal Hall), used illustratively — these are not photographs of the Pakistan squad.