Afghanistan national football team

Infobox National football team
Name = Afghanistan
Badge = Afghanistan_FA.jpg‎
Nickname = "Melli Team / Team Melli"
("The National Team")
FIFA Trigramme = AFG
FIFA Rank = 182
1st ranking date = January 2003
FIFA max = 173
FIFA max date = July 2006
FIFA min = 204
FIFA min date = January 2003
Elo Rank = 199
Association = Football Federation of Afghanistan
Confederation = AFC (Asia)
Coach = Flagicon|Afghanistan Mohammad Yosuf Kargar (2008-)
Most caps = Hafizullah Qadami (22)
Top scorer = Hafizullah Qadami (4)
Home Stadium = Ghazi Stadium

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Last match = Flagicon|Bangladesh| Bangladesh 0-0 Afghanistan Flagicon|Afghanistan (Bishkek; May 5, 2008) | First game = Flagicon|Afghanistan|1931 Afghanistan 0 - 0 Iran Flagicon|Iran|1964 (Afghanistan; August 25, 1941)
Largest win = Flagicon|Afghanistan|2002 Afghanistan 2 - 1 Kyrgyzstan Flagicon|Kyrgyzstan (Kathmandu, Nepal; March 16, 2003)
Flagicon|Sri Lanka Sri Lanka 1 - 2 Afghanistan Flagicon|Afghanistan (Karachi, Pakistan; 11 December, 2005)
Flagicon|Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan 0 - 1 Afghanistan Flagicon|Afghanistan (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; 7 May, 2008) | Largest loss = Flagicon|Turkmenistan Turkmenistan 11 - 0 Afghanistan Flagicon|Afghanistan|2002 (Ashgabat, Turkmenistan; November 19, 2003) |

Last game = Flagicon|Afghanistan Afghanistan 1 - 2 Syria Flagicon|Syria (Dushanbe, Afghanistan; October 26, 2007)
Last game = Flagicon|Afghanistan Afghanistan 1 - 2 Syria Flagicon|Syria (Dushanbe, Tajikistan; October 26, 2007)
World cup apps =
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World cup best =
Regional name =
Regional cup apps =
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2ndRegional name = South Asian Football Federation Cup
2ndRegional cup apps = 3
2ndRegional cup first = 2003
2ndRegional cup best = Group Stage - 2003, 2005, 2008

The Afghanistan national football team is the national team of Afghanistan and is controlled by the Football Federation of Afghanistan.The national team was founded in 1922 and joined FIFA in 1948 and AFC in 1954. The Afghanistan national team play their home games in Ghazi National Olympic Stadium which was built in the 1920s with capacity of over 25,000.

Afghanistan's best performance in international competition was in the 1951 Asian Games when they finished 4th. At present Afghanistan has low participation levels in football compared to many countries, and the game was not encouraged under the Taliban regime from 1996 to 2001. Afghanistan played no international fixtures from 1984 to 2003, since when the team rose to a peak of 173rd in the FIFA World Rankings.

Fixtures and Results

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Notable players

Shamsuddin Amiri (Goalkeeper)

Bashir Saadat (Defender)

Sayed Maqsood Hashemi (Midfielder)
Obaidullah Karimi (Forward)

Hafizullah Qadami (Forward)

Dominic Safar (Forward)

Ali Askar Lali (Midfielder)
Mustafa Nazari (Holding Midfielder)
Edris Nazari (Attacking Midfielder)

Managers

References

* [http://www.eloratings.net/Afghanistan.htm ELORATINGS]
* [http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/matches/asia/round=250425/match=300033461/index.html FIFA]
* [http://www.rsssf.com/tablesa/asgames51.html RSSSF Asian Games 1951]
* [http://www.rsssf.com/tablesa/asgames54.html RSSSF Asian Games 1954]
* [http://www.rsssf.com/tablesa/asgames02.html RSSSF Asian Games 2002]
* [http://afghanland.com/entertainment/soccer.html Afghanland]