A team of Afghan refugees will participate in its first international soccer tournament, which will be a round-robin event for four women’s national teams in the United Arab Emirates, FIFA announced Wednesday.
Dubbed ‘FIFA Unites: Women’s Series,’ the tournament will also feature national teams from Chad, Libya, and the UAE. The tournament will be held in Dubai Oct. 23-29, with all matches set to stream on FIFA+.
‘Ensuring that all women have access to football is a priority for FIFA and a key element in shaping the future of our sport,’ FIFA President Gianni Infantino said in a statement announcing the event.
Using the training grounds that typically host the English women’s and men’s national teams, FIFA last week hosted a talent identification camp for the Afghan refugee team, with roughly 70 players participating. Head coach Pauline Hamill and her coaching staff plan on narrowing that group down to a final 23-player squad to take part in October’s games.
The Afghan national team began play in 2007, but the Taliban-led government banned women from playing sports in August 2021. With significant worries that the ban would extend to punishment for players who had participated, the Australian government led an effort to evacuate 75 women athletes from Afghanistan.
The refugee team, which FIFA plans to recognize as representing Afghanistan, would be making its debut on the international stage. Many resettled players have teamed up to play in Australian lower-league soccer as the Melbourne Victory FC Afghan Women’s Team.
The last officially-recognized game for an Afghan women’s national soccer team was Dec. 1, 2018, a 5-0 loss to Tajikistan at the Central Asian Football Association Women’s Championship. FIFA statutes expressly bar governments from interfering in the affairs of their country’s recognized soccer federation. However, despite the actions of the Afghan government banning a women’s national team from play, the Afghanistan Football Federation has never faced sanctions from FIFA.
The UAE national team, which played its first international match in 2010, is currently ranked 117th out of 196 teams that meet the threshold for evaluation. The team’s coach, Vera Pauw, was accused of abusive conduct during her tenure leading the NWSL’s Houston Dash, and is currently barred from any role in the league. Pauw has denied the allegations against her.
The Chadian and Libyan teams are not currently ranked by FIFA due to inactivity. A report from UAE state-owned newspaper The National notes Libya last played a FIFA-sanctioned game in 2019. By participating in the ‘FIFA Unites: Women’s Series,’ both will qualify for a place in the next FIFA rankings, which will be released in December.