Kabul to Host Palestine vs Afghanistan Friendly in August

Published July 15th, 2018 - 06:12 GMT
Kabul will host Palestine in a football friendly to mark Afghanistan's independence day.
Kabul will host Palestine in a football friendly to mark Afghanistan's independence day.

Kabul is set to host a friendly match between Afghanistan and Palestine national football teams on August 19 to mark Independence Day, the war-torn country's football federation said on Friday.

The match will be held in Afghanistan Football Federation’s stadium in Kabul.

The official added that the match is a good chance for Afghanistan to prove it can host football events, and encourage FIFA, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, to remove the country from the list of the countries which cannot host matches.  

"By hosting the Palestinian team, we will show to FIFA that we can be a good host and we can convince them to take us out of the list of the five countries which are banned to host football matches," said Ali Kazimi, an official of Afghanistan Football Federation.

"The event is important for Afghanistan from a technical point of view, because Palestine is ahead of Afghanistan in the FIFA list," Kazimi added.

Kabul has so far hosted Pakistan’s national football team in a friendly match in 2013 which ended 3-0 in favor of Afghanistan.

"We should become a good host. This is important for us at this time, because lots of changes have happened in the national football team and also there are new cadres in the squad. This will help us to have a good team for the future," said Wahid Wahidi, the coach of the under-15 national football team.

Meanwhile, football governing body FIFA has also been accused of "tarnishing the beautiful game" by sanctioning matches in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Palestinian activists have called for a boycott of Israeli sports, similar to the sporting boycott of apartheid South Africa.

While FIFA has yet to action, global football stars have spoken in support of Palestinians.

They include France legend Eric Cantona who called for Mahmoud Sarsak's freedom while he was on hunger strike.

Most recently, the Argentinian national team cancelled a match against Israel in Jerusalem during the height of the Great Return March protests.

Israel responded with sniper fire and drone strikes to Gazans marching for the right to return to their homeland. At least 145 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces. No Israelis were killed.

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