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Football and music go hand in hand every four years when the World Cup comes around. But much like at the tournament, Pakistan is usually just cheering from the sidelines on the musical front too. Well, the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) just changed that.

The PFF has partnered with music platform Humnava to release ‘Sway’, a tribute to the beautiful game that brings together international artists and the contrasting worlds of Hunza and Lyari. It released on YouTube on July 7

A press release from the federation said the objective was to highlight the country’s “rising football culture a soundtrack – by bringing the wider football community into one national conversation”.

It said both Pakistan’s men’s and women’s teams had made remarkable strides in the game this year, with the boys bagging their first international trophy ever at the Diamond Jubilee International Football Tournament last month and the girls scoring their biggest ever win — an 8-0 thrashing of the Turks and Caicos Islands — in April.

The release quoted PFF President Mohsen Gilani as saying, “Pakistan’s football story belongs to every player, coach, supporter and community that has kept the game alive across the country. Our men’s and women’s teams are creating moments that are giving supporters new reasons to believe.”

Humnava’s Creative Director Zulfiqar Khan — known better as Xulfi — said Pakistanis watch every World Cup with a dream. They see the upsets, the winning goals, the underdogs making their place among giants and want to see their own teams do the same someday.

He said music wasn’t very different, especially when it comes to Karachi’s Lyari — where the song is partly shot. “It has watched its own boys, Better Future Pakistan, go unbeaten across a foreign field to lift the Norway Cup and it has heard its own voices, Eva B and Kaifi Khalil, rise from those same streets until the world had no choice but to listen.”

Khan said football was more than just a game and music was more than just sound; both were reasons for people to forget their differences and share love.

“‘Sway’ is ultimately a celebration of a simple but powerful idea: Pakistan’s football dream is alive, it belongs to the entire country and it deserves a soundtrack,” the statement read.