For three years football ground to a halt in Pakistan. No national fixtures, no funding.
Until last month, Pakistan had not been in action since March 2015 - a goalless World Cup qualifier against Yemen.
That led to an all-time low Fifa ranking of 201 out of 206 countries. The likes of Bermuda and Ethiopia rank higher.
How did it happen and who is taking on the onerous task of lifting the Green Shirts out of the doldrums?
A fall and an awakening?
Matters deteriorated for the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) following the June 2015 re-election of Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat as president, which was accompanied by accusations of vote-rigging.
Rival camps and infighting led to a Lahore High Court-appointed administrator overseeing footballing matters in the country. But that fell foul of Fifa's stipulation that a governing body cannot be under the control of "undue third party interference". Fifa gave the PFF two years to put its house in order.
Fans, former players and referees staged street protests, urging the government to intervene to resolve the PFF impasse and later to lift the Fifa ban imposed in October 2017.
The Pakistan Premier League, which has been operating since 2004 in a 12-team format, also ground to a halt in 2015, with the PFF unable to run the game or produce fixtures because of a separate dispute.
Club academies were unable to function, player development and club progression stopped and potential income was lost. The impasse lasted three years, but the loss to current and developing players may be felt for years to come.
After years of stagnation, however, football in Pakistan received a boost when Fifa lifted the sanction it imposed on the country last year.
As of March 2018, the PFF was once again free to run the game following the ramifications of the contested re-election result and internal disputes.
And in August, Pakistan returned to the international fold at the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia, where they narrowly failed to progress from their group as one of the best third-placed teams.
Fielding an under-23s team, which included three senior players, Pakistan won their first match at an Asian Games in almost 44 years - a 2-1 win over Nepal.
New Pakistan head coach Jose Antonio Nogueira, a 52-year-old Brazilian who previously coached Saudi Arabian side Al Ahly, as well as Sierra Leone and St Kitts & Nevis at international level, will have been heartened by what he saw.
But he knows the real test will come at the South Asian Football Federation Championship held in Dhaka from 4-15 September.
India - who are the current champions - Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, the Maldives and hosts Bangladesh will also contest the title.
"I have a good plan for Pakistan. To build football in Pakistan is very important. It stopped for a long time so now we need to start again," said Nogueira.
"I'll stay in Pakistan for a minimum of three years to review the development of football and young players in order to turn them into a force in Asia."
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