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Football in Afghanistan

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Football in Afghanistan
Ghazi Stadium, the national stadium of Afghanistan
CountryAfghanistan
Governing bodyAfghanistan Football Federation
National team(s)Men's national team
Women's national team
Afghanistan national futsal team
Afghanistan national beach soccer team
Afghanistan national minifootball team
Nickname(s)The Lions of Khorasan (m);
The Lions of Afghanistan (شیران افغانستان)(w)
First playedat least 1923 (men)
at least 2007 (women)
Registered players1922
National competitions
Club competitions

Football is one of the two most popular sports in Afghanistan; the other one being cricket.[2][3]

Early history

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Afghan national women's soccer team in a friendly against ISAF in 2011.
Local football players at a public park in Kandahar.

According to the Afghanistan Football Federation, the first Afghan football club was Mahmoudiyeh F.C., which was founded in 1934. Their men's team traveled to India three years later and took part in 18 games of which 8 were won, 9 lost and 1 tied. Ariana Kabul F.C. was established in 1941 and became the second Afghan football club. This team sent a men's team to Tehran upon invitation from Iran, played 3 games in which 1 was won and 2 were lost. Nothing is known about the early history of women's football in the country.

In 1948, the Afghanistan Football Federation joined FIFA and sent a men's national team to the UK to compete in the 1948 Summer Olympics. They lost their only match in a preliminary round 0–6 to Luxembourg national football team. From 1974 to 1979, an international football tournament named Afghanistan Republic Day Festival Cup, was organized in the country, in which multiple foreign teams participated.[4]

Afghanistan women's national football team is only recognized by the Federation since 2007.

Football governance

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Football in Afghanistan is governed by the Afghanistan Football Federation (AFF). The AFF was founded in 1922 and is a member of FIFA since 1948. In 1954, AFF became one of the founding members of the Asian Football Confederation and in 2015 of the Central Asian Football Confederation. Since the Fall of Kabul (2021), women's football is forbidden under the Taliban and AFF has subsequently discontinued all women's football programs. The Afghanistan women's national football team has taken refuge in Australia and keeps training and playing regularly,[5] while a development squad is based in the UK.[6] Both teams re

Men's national team

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Further information: Afghanistan national football team

One of the major successes of the Afghanistan men's national team came when the team won the 2013 SAFF Championship in Nepal. They have also finished runner-up of the same event in 2011 and 2015 and fourth at the Asian Games 1951 and the 2014 AFC Challenge Cup.[7]

Women's national team

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Further information: Afghanistan women's national football team

One of the major successes of the Afghanistan women's national team came when the team reached the semi-finals of the 2012 SAFF Women's Championship in Sri Lanka.[8][9]

League system

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Afghanistan football clubs

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Further information: List of football clubs in Afghanistan

References

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  1. ^ Afghan Women’s Premier League glory for Herat, AFC, 2020, retrieved 24 July 2022
  2. ^ Hodge, Nathan (11 October 2013). "Soccer Offers New Heroes in Afghanistan". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
  3. ^ http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/on-the-road/2012/11/football-fever-hindu-kush-freston Archived 15 January 2014 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ Morrison, Neil (2008). "Afghanistan Republic Day Festival Cup (Kabul, Afghanistan): Palmares". rsssf.com. Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Archived from the original on 2 October 2022. Retrieved 26 November 2022.
  5. ^ Peck, Damien (4 May 2022). "'Symbolic' Afghanistan national women's soccer team gives a voice for the voiceless on and off the pitch in Melbourne". ABC. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  6. ^ "Surrey To Host Afghan Women's Development Team". Impetus Football. 4 November 2022. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  7. ^ Miller, Nick. "'Our dream is to make the people proud': Afghanistan men's team ready for first game since Taliban returned". The Athletic.
  8. ^ Macur, Juliet (3 December 2022). "As the World Focuses on Soccer, a Women's Team in Exile Aches to Play" – via NYTimes.com.
  9. ^ "Afghanistan women's national soccer team in exile: 'The heart that is still beating'". ESPN.com. 15 August 2022.
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