Eighteen Afghanistan players set to boycott FIFA World Cup qualifier against Qatar

Afghanistan are pitted in Group A of the FIFA World Cup qualifiers alongside Qatar, Kuwait and India.

In a significant turn of events,the upcoming World Cup qualifier between Afghanistan and Qatar is facing a major setback, as most players of the Afghan men’s team are choosing to boycott the match. Their decision is rooted in a protest against what they perceive as inadequate treatment by the country’s football federation.

A letter, reportedly seen by The Guardian, has been sent to both FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation. The letter, signed by three overseas-based players who served as captains during the squad’s victory over Mongolia in the initial qualifying round last month, outlines various grievances. These complaints encompass allegations of substantial corruption within the Afghanistan Football Federation.

This act of boycott by the majority of the team represents their strong objection to the treatment and conditions they have faced, signaling deep-seated issues within the federation that the players feel have not been appropriately addressed.

Players show disgust, stay united

Noor Husin, who plays for National League side Southend United quoted explaining their decision,”The last straw came at the last camp when a big group of us decided that we’d had enough– 18 players got together and said: ‘If we’re going to move forward, we have to put a stop to this.’” 

Noor further went on explaining the difficulties and substandard treatment given by Afghanistan Football Federation. He said, “We really want change. We want to help domestic players because the money they are getting from Fifa is not being used in the right way. We have the worst flights possible and we have to stay in substandard hotels.”

“We’ve come together as a group because we want football in Afghanistan to move forward and we believe that it’s not going to move forward with the people that are in charge at the moment.”

The letter was signed by the team captain, Farshad Noor, and the former captain, Faysal Shayesteh. It calls for a FIFA investigation into claims that senior officials at the Afghanistan Football Federation have been mishandling funds meant for developing football within the country.

Faysal Shayesteh who represents the high flying Sreenidi Deccan in the I-League echoed Noor’s claim and added, “Every year our federation gets financial support from FIFA and the AFC.”

The Kabul born attacking midfielder stated that the players want to show a positive Afghanistan but the people running the country’s federation do not share similar vision. He mentioned, “We want to show a positive Afghanistan to the world so we are asking FIFA to stop supporting our federation financially because the money is going into the pockets of a gang who is ruling football in the country.” 

Behram Siddiqui refutes claims made by Afghanistan players

However, Behram Siddiqui, the general secretary of the Afghanistan Football Federation, has refuted the allegations and pleaded their case. He said, “Such behaviour falls under the jurisdiction of FIFA’s compliance team. If these funds were taken from a sponsorship, it is imperative that the federation’s audit discloses this information. The previous general secretary (Fazil Mohammad Shahab) finalised the 2021 audit report and submitted it to FIFA.”

Behram argued that following a regime change in August 2021 in Afghanistan, no funds from FIFA or any external sources have been credited to Afghanistan FF’s bank account. 

“Since the regime transition in August 2021, there has been no movement of funds from Fifa or any external sources to the football federation’s bank account. Therefore, any previous actions concerning this issue are not within my knowledge.”

The players have further alleged that half of the $30,000 bonus, intended for the squad’s advancement to the next round of World Cup qualifying stages, was distributed among the members of the AFF’s executive committee. Siddiqui contradicted this claim, stating that the players received $20,000, and the remaining $10,000 was utilized “to cover our national team’s expenses during training camp, as we have not had any money in our bank account for the past 10 months.”

He added that the money was “used to pay for the domestic flights of the national team players from various provinces, as Fifa does not cover domestic flights for all players who have to join the national team.”

Shayesteh and his teammates have additionally alleged that the AFF leadership has been mishandling funds from players’ air fare tickets for match travel. According to documents reviewed by The Guardian, the AFF requested nearly $65,000 from FIFA for a trip to the Central Asian Football Association Nations Cup in Kyrgyzstan in June, even though the initial expected cost was around $45,000.

Siddiqui has refuted the allegations, explaining that the rise in costs occurred because their initial quoted price from the travel agency had expired. Consequently, they had to purchase the flights just hours before their departure, leading to increased expenses.

The players’ letter also accuses the AFF president of inflating bills for hotel rooms, which were covered by FIFA. Siddiqui, however, denied this allegation as well, stating, “The truth is that all hotels send their invoices to FIFA, along with their bank account details. Once approved by FIFA’s compliance team, the money is directly transferred to the hotel’s account, which can take a considerable amount of time.”

For the upcoming qualifier against Qatar, a team primarily composed of locally-based players has been chosen. The match is scheduled to be held in Saudi Arabia after the AFF secured an agreement for Saudi Arabia to host all of Afghanistan’s home matches.

Shayesteh expressed his displeasure on the AFF’s decision to move home games to Saudi Arabia from Tajikistan and said, “We have been playing our home games in Tajikistan and that is the country where we have an advantage if you look at our results – even against Qatar we only lost 1-0 and we missed a penalty – because the weather is a big advantage.”

“But now they have sold our home games to Saudi where the weather is hot so it’s not to our advantage,” he added.

A FIFA spokesperson said: “Fifa was informed of these allegations very recently and is currently looking into the matter.”

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