Authorities immediately detained the group.
Japanese authorities have arrested a fake Pakistani football team attempting to enter the country using forged documents and fabricated identities.
The group of 22 men claimed they were representatives of the Pakistan Football Federation during immigration checks.
Their elaborate story collapsed when routine questioning by Japanese officials exposed inconsistencies in their documents and personal accounts.
Authorities immediately detained the group, later deporting them back to Pakistan after confirming their links to an illegal trafficking operation.
According to the Federal Investigation Agency, the fake football team presented forged no-objection certificates supposedly issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
They also carried fake letters suggesting they were officially cleared by the Pakistan Football Federation to represent the country abroad.
Immigration officers quickly noticed irregularities, raising questions about how such an audacious scheme evaded scrutiny at Pakistani airports.
Investigators identified Malik Waqas, a resident of Pasroor in Sialkot, as the alleged mastermind behind the trafficking racket.
Officials revealed Waqas had created a fictitious football club named Golden Football Trial, which served as a cover operation.
He reportedly charged between four and four and a half million rupees from each man for the trip to Japan.
The FIA’s Composite Circle in Gujranwala arrested Waqas on September 15, 2025, with multiple criminal cases now registered against him.
Authorities further disclosed this was not his first attempt at orchestrating such elaborate fraud through fabricated sports credentials.
Earlier in January 2024, he arranged the travel of 17 men to Japan using forged documents and club invitations.
Those individuals never returned, raising suspicions that the racket may also involve broader smuggling or labour exploitation networks.
This case bears similarities to previous instances where fake sports credentials were used as a cover for illegal migration.
In October 2024, a Lahore man attempted to reach the United States under the guise of being a cricketer.
He presented counterfeit documents near the US Consulate in Karachi before being arrested by authorities on charges of fraud.
Investigators later found he had acquired those forged cricket papers through an agent named Sajjad, after paying a large sum.
The recurrence of such scams has highlighted the vulnerability of Pakistan’s sports identity system to being misused for illegal migration.
Officials stress the need for greater scrutiny at airports and stricter verification processes for sporting credentials to prevent exploitation.
For now, Japanese authorities have handed the case back to Pakistan, where investigators continue probing the scale of the racket.
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