By David Owen
February 5 – A party from Afghanistan is to pay a knowledge-sharing visit to England, as part of a programme to foster the development of football in the war-torn country and aid the nation-building process that the west is keen to see take root.
The expedition, expected later this year, will include visits to Wembley, St George’s Park, the Football Association’s national football centre at Burton upon Trent, and other facilities, as well as meetings and workshops with FA and Premier League executives. Two sponsored places for Afghan coaches on the FA international licence course at St George’s Park from September have also been set aside.
News of the visit follows a recent two-day workshop in Dubai between representatives of English and Afghan football that was also attended by FIFA as well as British Embassy and Council officials.
Under the support package, the first stage of a three-phase coach development project in which trainers from Premier League clubs work with 20-25 male and female Afghan grass-roots coaches to produce a core group of coach-educators has already taken place in Dubai.
It is understood that consideration is being given to holding the final phase of this project in Kabul towards the end of this year or early in 2015. However, with key Presidential elections that should produce a successor to Hamid Karzai, who has held power since the fall of the Taliban, scheduled for April and foreign troops also due to pull out of the country, it will be some time before it becomes clear whether the situation is stable enough for this to happen.
A certain amount of progress in sports ranging from cricket to taekwondo, where Afghanistan has now won two Olympic bronze medals, is already evident. In football, the 30 million-strong nation is currently 138th in the FIFA rankings. An eight-team Afghan Premier League has been in operation since 2012, with matches played in Kabul.
Last week’s workshop also follows a visit to Afghanistan in December by David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, when he was accompanied by former Liverpool and England striker Michael Owen.
Afghan Football Federation general secretary Sayed Ali Reza Aghazada said the workshop “saw a commitment to a two-year partnership” by the various parties. Jane Bateman, the FA’s head of international relations, said it represented a “promising start to a multi-stakeholder approach to developing football in Afghanistan”.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1734858714labto1734858714ofdlr1734858714owedi1734858714sni@n1734858714ewo.d1734858714ivad1734858714