By Mark Baber
August 18 – India defeated Pakistan 1-0 on Sunday in the first match between the two Asian neighbours for nine years. All sporting ties between India and Pakistan were suspended following the 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai, with little contact since then other than a one-day cricket series in 2012.
The game, played in a packed stadium in Bangalore, mainly featured under-23 players, with Robin Singh scoring for India in the 46th minute but then being sent off in the 70th leaving the home side a nervous final 20 minutes to hold out.
Pakistan will have a chance to redeem themselves in the final game of the two-match series on Wednesday.
However, the game’s wider significance may lie less in being a warm-up for next month’s Asian games in South Korea as in representing a potential thaw in relations between the two countries.
Decades of hostility between the two countries have been extremely damaging to each side’s economic development, diverting resources from tackling poverty and improving education into arms and the military.
Powerful groups on each side of the border have a vested interest in keeping the antagonism going, so the role football diplomacy can play may be largely symbolic. However, any decrease in tensions can have a great effect as normalisation of commerce would, according to researchers, quickly boost Pakistan’s GDP by 2%.
India are currently ranked 150th and Pakistan 164th in FIFA’s rankings.
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