Monday, December 31, 2012

2012: Afghanistan Football in Review

We are some hours away from 2013 and I look back to the ups and downs of football in Afghanistan in 2012. Overall, it was an unproductive year of football for Afghanistan on international level, but very productive in terms of domestic football.

National Men Team: Afghanistan did not take part in any official or friendly fixtures in 2012. That dropped Afghanistan 24 places on FIFA ranking. While Afghanistan's participation in the Nehru Cup was confirmed initially, at the end Afghanistan did not participate. Furthermore, Afghanistan rejected the invitation of Pakistan Football Federation to play friendlies on two occasions. These all proved how the achievements can be compromised as the result of ineffectiveness of the Football Federation.


Afghanistan Women Team: While it was a quite year for the men's team, the women's team started the year on a high. In February, Afghanistan defeated Qatar 2-0 in a friendly in Doha. This was the first victory for Afghanistan in an international fixture. In the SAFF Championship, Afghanistan drew with Maldives, but defeated Pakistan with 4-0 scoreline. In spite of 7-1 defeat in the match with host Nepal, Afghanistan qualified for the semi-final where it was eventually eliminated by India. Afghanistan used a mixed of players from domestic players and a number of US and Germany based players.


U14 National Team: Afghanistan won the South and Central Asian Festival, however, it did not have a good showing in the South Asian Countries tournament which was held in Japan. In other levels, Afghanistan did not bother to participate in official matches.


Afghanistan Premier League: For many years, it was my wish to witness the launch of a national league. In 2012, it came true and Afghanistan launched the first ever premier league. Eight teams were selected by a pool of AFF coaches. The teams represented 8 regions of the country which were divided in two groups of four teams, with semi-final and final matches staged after the group stage. Toofan Harirood won the title eventually beating Simorgh Alborz in the final match. Overall, it was a very well organized tournament with all matches broadcasted live on TV, radio and youtube. The tournament created the basis for future improvements of football and brought football to the homes of Afghans.

Afghans in Foreign Leagues:
Islam Amiri continued his association with Mumbai FC for the second season, this time as the skipper. His team is now in 5th place in the I-League. Jalal Sharityar left the Cyprus League and joined Al-Hadd in Bahrain's Premier League. His team is now second in the League. Balal Arzoo is still with Asker, but his team failed to promote to the second tier league in Norway. Yousef Mashriqi had a two week long training with Bunyodkor of Uzbekistan, but he did not agree on the terms of the contract with the Uzbek side. The others continued in their previous teams in the second or lower tiers of European leagues.


Elsewhere, provincial leagues continued like the previous years with Herat, Kabul, Balkh and Kandahar pioneering in terms of holding different categories of provincial tournaments. Meanwhile, the work on a number of football stadiums initiated this year. Ghazi stadium was also covered by a turf pitch.

While 2012 is gone, all eyes are on 2013. A lot is expected in 2013. A better improved national league is expected, the national is expected qualify for the final stage of the AFC Challenge Cup and also make a good drive in the SAFF Championship. In addition, Afghanistan is participating in the AFC U16 and U19 Qualifiers and SAFF U16 Qualifiers. It is still to be seen if Afghanistan experiences a productive year year of football in 2013. Happy new year!

Thursday, December 20, 2012

AFF Names Coach of the Year



The coach who led his team to glory in the first premier league of Afghanistan is selected as the Coach of the Year by Afghanistan Football Federation. The delegation from AFF who has traveled to Herat this week, gave the title to Moien Hamedi, coach of Toofan Harirood. Toofan beat Simorgh Alborz 2-1 in the final match of the first Afghan Premier League this year.

Meanwhile, the governor of Herat asked Toofan to start preparations from now and defend its title next year.

The officials in AFF said they will try to standardize the league and make it round robin where each team will face the other team in two legs.

Some reports suggest a new stadium will be built in Herat next year and the work will begin very soon. Herat has only one stadium which lacks a proper pitch and is owned by the municipality.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Afghanistan Drops Dramatically in FIFA Ranking



As expected, Afghanistan witnessed a dramatic drop in FIFA ranking this month. By losing 82 points, Afghanistan was placed 186 in FIFA ranking, 19 places lower than the previous month. This is the biggest drop of Afghanistan Football Team in FIFA ranking in a month. Afghanistan had recorded 13 placed drop in 2011.

Afghanistan did not play a single match after the 2011 SAFF Championship and is only set to play matches in March when it faces Laos, Mongolia and Sri Lanka in the Challenge Cup Qualifier.

In Asia, Afghanistan stands at 41 and 5 in south Asia, in contrast to 30 and 2 in previous month.

I have warned more than a month ago this would happen, but unfortunately Afghanistan Football Federation did not organize any friendlies during November and December.

After release of the ranking, AFF officials said the National Team will be engaged in a number of tournaments in 2013 and Afghanistan's ranking will be improved. One of the coaches in AFF says they aim to reach to raise to 150 in 2013.

Afghanistan to Begin U14 Campaign on May 4

Football Federation of Nepal has finalized the date for group C qualifiers of inaugural AFC U-14 Championship on Tuesday.


The qualifiers will be played in Kathmandu from May 4 to 15.

Afghanistan have been grouped with Bhutan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Maldives and Nepal in Group C.

Top two teams from this group will qualify for the 8 team final stage to be held in 2014.

Monday, December 17, 2012

Afghanistan's 2nd Goal Project



Project approval date: 2010-10-26

Project location: Kabul

Project description:
Construction of the association’s headquarters. The project is part of a football complex that includes an artificial turf pitch and a technical centre

Goal project number: 2

Project status: Active

Objectives:
The objectives of this project are:
-to deliver headquarters and administrative offices befitting a football association
-to improve the association’s training facilities
-to help the association to optimise the use of its headquarters

Goal contribution 400000
FAP contribution 175000
MA contribution 0
Other contribution 0
Total budget 575000
Contractors Total amount
Ehsanullah Timor Engineeing and Technical Services Company Ltd (ETESC) 5000
Peshsaaz Nawin Close Shareholding Construction Company 240022
Total paid 245022

Afghanistan to Participate in AFC U19 and U16 Qualifiers

Afghanistan will participate in the qualifying stage of AFC U19 and U16 Championships next year, the secretary general of Afghanistan Football Federation stated on his facebook page.

The qualifier for U19 is scheduled for October 26 to Nov 10 while the qualifier for U16 is scheduled for September 21 to Oct 6.

Afghanistan withdrew from the previous U19 Qualifier. However, it participated in the U16 qualifier and indeed qualified for the final stage as the best 3rd team in the west region, although it was barred by AFC later over entering an over-age player.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

An Interview with Askar Lali



For three decades, Afghanistan was wracked by war and ethnic struggles. Football also suffered during this awful period and was even banned at one point. A passion for the beautiful game has been reignited throughout the country, however, and it has even managed to promote peace in a war-torn land.

Football is finally being played again in the hard-hit central Asian republic, with a national league actually being created and enjoying a successful first season. Eight teams from as many different regions took part in the newly-founded Afghan Premier League (APL), with the final – held in a packed stadium in Kabul in front of almost 5,000 fans – seeing Toofan Harirod defeat Simorgh Alborz 2-1 to win the inaugural title.

One of the driving forces behind the league is Ali Askar Lali, a former Afghan international who in 1981 arrived as a refugee in Germany. There he went on to play for and coach a number of teams before heading home to help bring about the re-birth of football and the founding of the APL. FIFA.com spoke with him about his hopes for the future of football in Afghanistan.

FIFA.com: What are your current occupations?
Ali Askar Lali: I work for FIFA on grassroots projects, mostly in Afghanistan. I'm also a technical adviser to the Afghanistan Football Association as well as working for the German Football Association in Afghanistan and in other countries. I train coaches, put in place structures and look after a lot of other things besides.

What are the most important current projects in Afghanistan?
There are two of them: one is the formation of a professional league, the other is creating the basis for teams to exist. This means that we are investing a lot in the grass roots – not just in Kabul but in plenty of other provinces besides. These two focuses are of great importance at the moment.

What did you think of the Afghan Premier League's first season?
It was a great success in many respects. We demonstrated that we can play and organise good football. The league brought us closer to a lot of people in Afghanistan. Around 16 million people – over half of the population – followed the championship, which means that we managed to bring football into people's homes and get families interested in the game. At the season finale, we saw just how enthusiastic young people had become for football. We've succeeded in projecting a peace-loving image of Afghanistan. Most people only know the country in connection with struggles, war, arms and drugs, and we have managed to show them another side to Afghanistan. Even within the country we managed to show unity and bring all ethnic groups together. They played together and had fun together.

What are your aims for the coming years?
The Premier League was a big step forward and we want to build on that. We need to make further improvements to the organisation – the league doesn't have any structures at the moment and we want to build those up. The clubs also need to be developed more. We organised the league using existing structures and brought teams together from eight regional zones, and the next step is to organise an open league. These are aims that we are going to pursue, even if the road ahead is a long one. We've got off to a good start and therefore we're optimistic that in five or six years' time, we'll have a good league.

Which would have a corresponding effect on the Afghanistan national team…
The stronger the league, the better the national team will obviously be. It's the flagship of any country. After all the years of conflict, I want to see Afghanistan present itself as a unit, as a united nation, and the national team is a very good means of achieving this. A strong national team would be good for the whole population.

How are things looking for women's football?
Tradition dictates that this will be a rockier road. We first established women's football here in Afghanistan in 2003 or 2004. It was a tough job but we've managed to create teams in larger cities like Kabul and get clubs interested in supporting women's football. We have competitions for women's teams as well as organising an Afghan women's select team to take part in international tournaments. It was a long road but we've definitely taken the first few steps along it. We've made people more aware of women's football, for example by trying to show some women's football in between league matches. We also invited the women's international team to a league match and introduced them to the crowd after they had beaten Pakistan 4-1. People didn't know much about women's football before that, but after they found out that the Afghan team had beaten our arch rivals, they were proud of them. I think that we're on the right track when it comes to developing and supporting women's football in major cities in Afghanistan. In five to ten years, we will hopefully be doing the same in the provinces.

Could it be said that football in Afghanistan has brought the country together after all these years of war?
You could put it like that. For years we've been saying that Afghanistan can do so much with so little resources. Football is an incredible tool when it comes to steering young people away from arms, violence and drugs. The Premier League made a connection with lots of youngsters, showed them that football can open their horizons and that it is a sport that they can feel at home with. Football can achieve great things with modest means.

As part of the FIFA Goal Project, an artificial pitch has been built in Kabul which will have league matches played on it. How important is this development?
The Goal Project was the greatest step towards independence that our national association has taken, as it put them in a situation to be able to organise an event without outside influences from other organisations in Afghanistan. In a country like ours, there are plenty of bodies that want to exert an influence on football, but thanks to the Goal Project, we have been able to be independent enough up until now to organise events ourselves. And it's not just football matches – we can also train our coaches and officials as well as our youth players. The Goal Project really was a big thing for us. We would have liked some extra support, for example from our government, since we're short on capacity; we're short of people who can work out on the pitch, like coaches, referees and event organisers. We need people who understand how to implement structures for a league and for clubs. This is the capacity that we currently don't have in Afghanistan. We need to improve the infrastructure so that we ourselves can become more active in all the provinces.

You personally are a legend of Afghanistan football. Does that help when you are trying to motivate other people and partners?
I've earned a lot of respect as a former international who has come back to Afghanistan to help build up football in the country. Not many people have returned home out of exile. People can see that I'm committed to football, and that puts me in a position to open doors when it comes to sponsors and projects.

AFC U14 Qualifier - Draw

Afghanistan is placed with Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

AFC Challenge Cup 2014 Qualifiers – Draw




Group A – Hosts Myanmar

Myanmar

India

Chinese Taipei

Guam

Group B – Hosts Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan

Tajikstan

Pakistan

Macau

Group C – Hosts Laos

Laos

Afghanistan

Sri Lanka

Mongolia

Group D – Hosts Nepal

Nepal

Palestine

Bangladesh

Northern Mariana Islands

Group E – Hosts Philippines

Philippines

Turkmenistan

Cambodia

Brunei

Matches will be played on March 2, 4 and 6 with the exception of Group B where the games will be played on March 17, 19 and 21.

Monday, December 10, 2012

Forozi is Crowned as Kabul Champion

Forozi is crowned as the champion of Kabul Premier League. 19 teams participated in the six month long league where Urdo got the second place. In its last match, Forozi defeated United Sadaat 3-0 and tot a total of 52 points.

Wednesday, December 05, 2012

Pots for the AFC Challenge Cup Qualifier Revealed

Kyrgyzstan Football Federation website reveals the composition of pots for AFC Challenge Cup Qualifier to be held on December 11. According to this website, 20 teams, including Cambodia and Bangladesh, will participate in the qualifier.

All 20 teams will be divided into 5 groups. The winners and two second best teams will qualify for the final. The hosts for the qualifier stage, Laos, Nepal, Philippines, Kyrgyzstan and Myanmar will will be put in pot A.

Pot A: Laos, Nepal, Philippines, Kyrgyzstan and Myanmar

Pot B: Turkmenistan, Palestine, Tajikistan, India and Afghanistan

Pot C: Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Bangladesh and Cambodia

Pot D: Macau, Guam, Mongolia, Brunei and Northern Mariana Islands

If Afghanistan is not grouped with the Philippines, any other draw would favor Afghanistan and qualification should not be a big issue.

On the other hand, Philippines can find itself in group of death as all teams in Pot B look strong.

Tuesday, December 04, 2012

Some Clarity on the Format of AFC Challenge Cup Qualifier

The website of Tajikistan Football Federation reports the draw for the AFC Challenge Cup Qualifier will be held on December 11. The national teams will be divided into five groups. The five winners of their groups, as well as the two best second teams will join Maldives.

Laos, Myanmar, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal and the Philippines will host the qualifying groups.

It is still not known how the teams will be distributed.