Soccer in Afghanistan

Young soccer players during a game at Ghazi Stadium , the national stadium of Afghanistan (2006)

Besides cricket , soccer is one of the most popular sports in Afghanistan . In 1922 the Afghanistan Football Federation was founded, but the sport spread slowly in the country; Also due to the war in Afghanistan , the sport could not be practiced professionally for a long time. Afghan football experienced its first heyday in the 1970s, but this ended abruptly after the Soviet intervention in 1979 and the subsequent unrest in the country. Sport was banned entirely under the Taliban for a long time, but has been tolerated since the turn of the millennium . Since the Taliban's withdrawal, football has been played regularly again, but initially football was clearly overshadowed by cricket. The Afghan Premier League , founded in 2012, and winning the South Asian Cup in 2013 , which meant Afghanistan won an international title for the first time, are considered to be the initial spark for the sport's increasing popularity .

history

1922 to 1954: The beginnings

An Afghan football team from Kabul ( 1920s )

Football came to the country during the reign of Habibullah Khan at the turn of the century through British teachers who taught at schools and universities in Afghanistan, which was made a protectorate of the British Empire from 1880 . The Afghanistan Football Federation was founded three years after the declaration of independence in 1919 . The first soccer tournament took place in 1923 and was held among four school teams in Kabul. In 1934, Mahmoudiyeh FC, the first organized football club, was founded. This team traveled to British India in 1937 and took part in an international tournament, where they completed 18 games and won eight of them. In 1941, Ariana Kabul FC was founded as the second Afghan club . The club took part in a tournament in Tehran two years later . In 1941, Afghanistan's first international match against Iran (0-0) took place. A football league was held for the first time in 1946, followed by the first participation of the Afghan national team in the Olympic Games in 1948 . In 1954, the AFF was one of the founding members of the Asian Football Confederation .

Subsequently, with the exception of a possible Olympic qualifying game against India in 1959 ¹ , neither country nor league games took place in the late 1950s and until late 1960s . One can only speculate about the reasons; possibly financial bottlenecks, which cannot be ruled out due to the economic crisis in the country at the end of the 1950s and its aftermath, led to the cessation of gaming operations.

1969 to 1985: soccer as a student sport

In the 1960s, the Afghans' way of life changed: young people and students in particular sought the apparently modern lifestyle of the western world . In addition to the cultural adaptations, football was played again, especially among students. In 1969 Habibia High School became the first school to resume gaming. In the early 1970s, the Afghan sports and university teacher Islam Gul became the new president of the Afghanistan Football Federation . Gul reorganized Afghan football; so from the 1970/71 season there was again a regular league operation with 13 teams from Kabul. The first regional leagues were also played in the other regions of Afghanistan; In the mid-1970s, for example, there was a 14-team football league in Mazar-e Sharif . Organized football was also practiced in the provinces of Herat and Kandahar from the late 1960s. From 1974, was for the annual celebrations establishing Democratic Republic of Afghanistan on 17 July 1973, the Jamhouriat Cup ( dt. "Republic Cup") held. Every year until 1977 one or more Afghan national selections played there against different teams. They also took part in other unofficial tournaments such as the Quaid-e-Azam International Cup or the Agha Khan Gold Cup in the 1970s .

Whether these games can be called international matches is controversial. While most national team players, e.g. B. Ali Askar Lali or Said Azimshah Garibzada , counting these matches as internationals, are recognized by FIFA and WFER only two internationals at the Jamhouriat Cup 1976, including the first international win in history against Pakistan (1-0). The Afghan selection, which for the entire decade consisted almost exclusively of players from the Kabul Premier League , mostly played only against national teams and clubs (not described in detail) and hardly against real national teams. The first official international match after the resumption of play was the AM qualifier on April 2, 1975 against Saudi Arabia (0-2). These first attempts at rebuilding Afghan football were abruptly interrupted by the Saur Revolution in 1978 and the Russian intervention from 1979 onwards . While the Kabul league continued to exist with relatively no problems, most of the national players fled to Paderborn from 1980 , so that the game here had to be suspended for a long time. It was not until 1984 that the national team made a brief comeback for the qualifying games for the 1984 Asian Cup , but with the advancing war and the extensive destruction of many football fields, regular play became impossible. The Kabul Premier League was also suspended from the 1984/85 season.

1989 to 2001: Sport in the Civil War and under the Taliban

Shortly before the last Soviet troops withdrew, smaller football tournaments were held in 1988/89. After the final withdrawal of the Soviets, the game of the Kabul Premier League was resumed for the 1991 season , despite the ongoing civil war in Afghanistan . After the Taliban came to power , like any other sport, football was temporarily banned. However, this ban was relaxed, but under strict conditions: The men had to play with long clothes and hats, and cheering was forbidden. Sports had been banned entirely for women. In addition, people were executed during the half-time breaks.

2002 to 2011: First measures to rebuild football

Scene from the game against Turkmenistan at Ghazi Stadium (2003)

During the years of the Taliban regime, however, football, which had been a popular sport in Afghanistan since the 1970s, became very unpopular. Instead, the Afghan public became more and more interested in cricket , which became very popular among the Afghan exiles who fled to Pakistan and which was brought into the country after the fall of the Taliban in 2001. Nevertheless, from 2002 onwards, Afghan football was rebuilt. Due to a financial injection of $ 40,000 from FIFA , only one year after the end of the Taliban regime, an Afghan soccer team was able to take part in the Asian Games in 2002 . In January of the following year, the participation in the South Asian Cup followed in 2003 , although Afghanistan was not yet a member of the South Asian Football Federation at the time .

As a result, Germany did pioneering work in the reconstruction of Afghan football and actively supported the developments for several years. As part of the FIFA development aid project Goal, the German Football Association, in cooperation with the German Olympic Sports Confederation , the Foreign Office and the United Nations, sent former sports moderator Holger Obermann , who has made a name for himself as a football development worker in crisis areas, and the former national player Ali Askar Lali to Afghanistan in May 2003 to help build the structure of Afghan football. The main focus should be on children, youth and amateur football, the training of football coaches and the development of the U and A national teams. After an initial six-month build-up phase, the World Cup qualifying second leg against Turkmenistan (0: 2) was another international match on Afghan soil after more than 27 years. After initially only promoting the greater Kabul area , the cooperation partners expanded their project to cover the entire country. So eight different provinces across the country, including the provinces of Herat and Kunduz, were supplied with various necessary utensils and sports infrastructure. In addition, the development of women's football , which was strictly prohibited under the Taliban, was promoted, which culminated in the founding of the country's first women's national team. In September 2004, Klaus Stark replaced Obermann and at the same time became the first German national coach in Afghanistan. In February 2009 the extension work in Afghanistan, which was extended several times, ended after almost six years. However, the collaboration was continued for short-term projects.

In the first years of the post-Taliban period, Afghan football was largely able to rehabilitate itself. Many football clubs were formed and various regional associations were founded. The infrastructure in children's and youth football could also be further developed. Football was able to develop particularly in the provinces of Kabul, Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif. The national selection, however, stagnated for years. In 2005 the AFF joined the SAFF , and the national team participated regularly in the South Asian Championships, but did not get beyond the preliminary round. In the qualifying games for the World Cup you always failed in the first qualifying round; while they lost to Syria to qualify for the 2010 World Cup , they failed to qualify for the 2014 World Cup to Palestine . Afghanistan only took part once in qualifying for the Asian Cup; here too it was over after the first qualifying round for the 2004 Asian Cup . The only noteworthy success of an Afghan country selection in this phase was winning the silver medal of the U-23 national team at the 2010 Asian Games , where they moved into the final after four wins in a row and only lost there against India.

The senior national team

The Afghan national team is the selection team of the Afghanistan Football Federation (AFF) and represents Afghanistan on an international level.

Due to the decades of war and other unrest of a political nature in the country, it was almost impossible for a long time to establish a national team permanently. In the early years of the national team, for example, international matches only took place at intervals of many years. Between 1959 and 1976 and 1984 and 2002 no games were played for a total of 35 years.

The qualification for the Asian or World Cup has not yet succeeded. The national team has only celebrated greater success in the recent past; the biggest is winning the 2013 South Asian Championship .

Participation in the AFC Challenge Cup

year	host	Result	S.	U	N	Gates
2006	Bangladesh	Preliminary round	0	2	1	3: 5
2008	India	Preliminary round	0	0	3	0:10
2014	Maldives	4th place	1	3	1	4: 4

Participation in the South Asian Championship

year	host	Result	S.	U	N	Gates
2003	Bangladesh	Preliminary round	0	0	3	0: 6
2005	Pakistan	Preliminary round	1	0	2	3:11
2008	Maldives and Sri Lanka	Preliminary round	0	2	1	5: 7
2009	Bangladesh	Preliminary round	0	0	2	1: 6
2011	India	Vice South Asian Champion	3	1	1	13: 7
2013	Nepal	South Asian Champion	4th	1	0	9: 1
2015	India	Vice South Asian Champion	4th	0	1	17: 3

The U national teams

Afghan national underground teams have existed since the 1970s; the U-19 national team was the only Afghan national team to qualify for the Asian Cup three times between 1975 and 1978 and even made it to the quarter-finals in 1977. Numerous other U-national teams were created in the post-Taliban period. They range from the U-23 to the U-12 national team. Despite regular participation in national championships, the national teams have been relatively unsuccessful in the past. The only notable success was winning the silver medal of the U-23 selection at the 2010 South Asian Games . By winning the Central Asian Championship, the U-15 national team was able to win its first youth title.

Participation in international U-23 tournaments (selection)

South Asian Games

year	host	Result	S.	U	N	Gates
2004	Islamabad	Preliminary round	0	0	3	1: 7
2006	Colombo	Preliminary round	0	2	1	1: 5
2010	Dhaka	Silver medal	4th	0	1	6: 5

Participation in international U-19 tournaments (selection)

Asian Championship

year	host	Result	S.	U	N	Gates
1975	Kuwait	Preliminary round	0	1	3	5:12
1977	Iran	Quarter finals	0	1	2	4: 8
1978	Bangladesh	Preliminary round	0	0	3	0:11

Central Asian Championship

year	host	Result	S.	U	N	Gates
2016	Uzbekistan	4th place	0	0	3	1: 6

Participation in international U-15 tournaments (selection)

Central Asian Championship

year	host	Result	S.	U	N	Gates
2017	Tajikistan	Central Asian Champion	3	0	1	9: 4

The Afghan league system

1922 to 2011: The time of the regional leagues

Football was already played in league-like systems in Afghanistan when the first football clubs were founded. The role of football in the capital Kabul crystallized early on . With a few exceptions, players from the regional Kabul Premier League have made up the national team since the 1940s. In the 1970s, the A and B national teams even played under the official names "Kabul A" and "Kabul B", and even after the turn of the millennium, the national team was smiled at as the "Kabul Football Club". This is one of the reasons why the masters of the KPL were called Afghan masters . Parallel to the KPL, however, regional championships were also running in all other provinces, all of which had the status of the first division. Nothing is known about a promotion and relegation system for these regions, but the Kabul Premier League was divided into an A and a B group, where several teams were promoted or relegated. As early as 2007, but regularly since the 2010s, the champions of the regional championships qualified for the Inter-zone Soccer Trophy , a kind of national soccer championship. The winner of this cup was not considered to be the Afghan champions. The league system in Afghanistan until 2011 was as follows:

level	Division
1	Kabul Premier A League “ Afghanistan Premier League ” Number of teams varies (mostly 12) 1st place: Afghan champions last two places: relegated				regional championships of the state associations z. B. Herat Premier League or Kandahar Premier League unknown number of teams 1st place: Champion
2 (+)	Kabul Premier B League unknown number of teams 1st and 2nd place: Promoted team				(possibly) regional championships of the state associations

Since 2012: The Afghan Premier League is founded

In cooperation with the telecommunications provider Roshan and the media empire Moby Group , the Afghanistan Football Federation decided on July 9, 2012 to introduce a professional and national football league from the 2012 season under the name Afghan Premier League . This replaced the Kabul Premier League as the de facto highest league in Afghanistan. Eight new clubs were founded specifically for the league, each representing a specific region of the country (for more information, see the Afghan Premier League). There is no promotion and relegation regulation. Since 2012 the league system looks like this:

level	Division
1	Afghan Premier League 8 teams 1st place: Afghan champions + AFC Cup qualification no promoted and relegated	Kabul Premier League 10 to 14 teams 1st place: regional champions, last two places: relegated				regional A leagues of the state associations z. B. Herat Premier League
2	Kabul Premier B League unknown number of teams 1st and 2nd place: Promoted team				regional B-leagues of the state associations
3+	Game operations of the regional associations

Special features of the Afghan league system

In contrast to most leagues in the world, the Afghan Premier League does not play in the usual round-robin system or "everyone against everyone", but in tournament form, where the eight clubs meet in two groups and the respective group leaders and second in a subsequent knockout round determine the finalists. This is carried out down to the lowest youth league in the whole country. Another special feature is that the APL, despite its claim to represent all regions of the country, will only be held in the capital Kabul for security reasons. Only the regional tournaments to determine the players' squad are held in the respective regions.

For cost reasons, the players only play together in a team for just under three months during the preparation for and during the tournament. While in most countries of the world the players play in a club, most Afghans play in the regional leagues during the year and in the Premier League between July and October, similar to the league system in India with the I-League and the Indian Super League or as in cricket sport .

Web links

Commons : Association football in Afghanistan  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• History of football in Afghanistan on YouTube

Individual evidence

¹FIFA does not recognize the game. It may never have happened.

1. ↑ Freston, Tom: Football Fever in the Hindu Kush . In: Vanity Fair . Published on November 8, 2012 (Memento in the Internet Archive of January 15, 2014)
2. ↑ Brechna, Habibo: The history of Afghanistan: the historic environment of Afghanistan 1500 years , Zurich 2005
3. ↑ Short story of football in Afghanistan (Persian)
4. ↑ ^{a b c d} RSSSF : Afghanistan - List of Champions , October 6, 2016
5. ↑ Die Welt : In a summer dress through Afghanistan's “golden era” , January 25, 2016
6. ↑ Chiari, Bernhard (ed.): Guide to history. Afghanistan ( Memento of the original from January 30, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , 3rd edition, Schöningh 2009, p. 43 
7. Jump up ↑ Leagues and Teams in Afghanistan 1970/71
8. ↑ ^{a b} Afghanistan - Various Data 1969-2011
9. ↑ Ali Askar Lali talks about the beginnings of Afghan football (Link: [1] ; Persian)
10. ^ Quaid-E-Azam International Cup (Pakistan) at RSSSF
11. ^ Aga Khan Gold Cup (Dhaka, Bangladesh) at RSSSF
12. ↑ ^{a b} pioneers of Afghan football (Persian)
13. ↑ Excerpt from a film about the history of football in Afghanistan on YouTube
14. ↑ Afghan Mania: Ali Askar Lali, Beckenbauer Afghanistan in Warburg
15. ↑ Leagues and clubs in Afghanistan 1984/85
16. ↑ [2]
17. ↑ Stern : Kicking in the land of the Taliban , October 17, 2001
18. ↑ ^{a b} Dfb.de : Afghanistan expert Lali: "Football is greater than the Taliban" , 31 August 2016
19. ^ Wiener Zeitung : "Just want to play cricket" , December 12, 2012
20. ↑ FAZ : Football in Afghanistan: Back in world rankings and normality , September 18, 2002
21. ^ DOSB: Holger Obermann as FIFA inspector to Afghanistan , August 16, 2002
22. ^ DOSB: Impressions from Afghanistan , June 20, 2003
23. ^ DOSB: Afghanistan celebrated the return to international football , November 24, 2003
24. ↑ DOSB: The Afghan Football League starts on Saturday , May 25, 2004
25. ^ DOSB: Successful conclusion of the NOK / DFB short-term project in Afghanistan , November 4, 2004
26. ^ DOSB: Much praise for the German Afghanistan project at the FIFA launch in Kabul , March 19, 2004
27. ^ DOSB: Women's football in Afghanistan is developing rapidly , February 7, 2005
28. ^ First women's national team founded in Afghanistan , July 27, 2007
29. ↑ DOSB: Soccer seminar in Kabul ended successfully - German sports project still active , September 29, 2004
30. ^ DOSB: Football projects in Afghanistan end after six years , February 10, 2009
31. ↑ aff.org: Afghanistan forms national U-23 team ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
32. ↑ aff.org: Visit during the country's U-12 national team training session ( Memento of the original from April 1, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
33. ↑ AFC: Afghanistan crowned CAFA U-15 Boys Tournament champions , July 11, 2017
34. ↑ 1tvnews.af: Afghanistan U-15 footballers win 2017 CAFA Cup , July 9, 2017
35. ↑ RSSSF: Afghanistan Republic Day Festival Cup (Kabul, Afghanistan)
36. ^ Afghanistan: Kabul Football Club , Documentation, Kabul 2006. Excerpt on YouTube
37. ↑ RSSSF: Afghanistan 2010
38. ↑ Roshan: [Roshan Afghan Premier League 2012 to Launch July 9th], July 9, 2012
39. ↑ AFF: Kohistan FC wins the title of Herat U-14 first division league ( Memento of the original from April 1, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , January 2017