Afghanistan National Football Team

The Afghanistan national football team (Persian: تیم ملی فوتبال افغانستان ‎) also known as The Lions of Khorasan is the national team of Afghanistan and is controlled by the Afghanistan Football Federation. The national team was founded in 1922 and joined FIFA in 1948 and the AFC in 1954. Afghanistan was one of the founding members of the AFC. The Afghanistan national team plays its home games at the Ghazi National Olympic Stadium in Kabul.

Afghanistan's best performance in an international competition was in the 2011 SAFF Championship where they finished 2nd. Afghanistan played no international fixtures from 1984 to 2003 FIFA World Rankings. The game was not encouraged under the Taliban regime from 1996 to 2001. The Afghan national team eventually returned to the international arena in 2002, when they played South Korea in the Asian Games, losing 2-0. Since their reemergence in the international football scene, they have since reached a peak of 162nd in 2012 in the FIFA World Rankings, and currently place 166th. At present, Afghanistan has a low level of participation in football due to lack of funds and security problems inside the country. Despite this, Afghanistan made it to the final match of SAFF Championship 2011 where they were eventually defeated by the hosts and title holders India in a match that was shadowed by the referee’s decision to give a penalty, and a red card, to the Afghan keeper. In the group stage, Afghanistan drew with India, and defeated Sri Lanka and Bhutan, and came out the winner in the semi-final against Nepal.