A number of players from the Afghanistan women’s football team have been evacuated to the UK after the Taliban took control of the country ‘hadn’t even played the sport’, an investigation has found.
Around 35 members of the women’s national team along with their families – 130 people in total – were brought to safety from Pakistan to the UK in November 2021.
The women – aged between 13 and 19 at the time – were given visas by the British Home Office as they were believed to be at increased risk by the Taliban for practicing a sport the insurgent group considered un-Islamic. considered.
But one study found that about a third of the 35 women who were granted asylum had never played for the team.
Speaking to former players, coaches and officials of the Afghanistan women’s team, the investigation identified 13 individuals who were alleged not to have been part of the team.
Afghan women football players of the Afghanistan national team celebrate with the trophy after the final of their women’s football tournament in December 2013
Players of the Afghanistan women’s national football team attend a training session in Odivelas, a suburb of Lisbon, September 2021
Conducting her research, the BBC’s News night said it has been given access to the full list of female footballers who have been transported to the UK and granted asylum.
They validated the list and said the names given to the Interior Ministry were genuine. But identifying them as national team footballers or local clubs was incorrect.
Najibullah Nowroozi, coach of the Herat Youth Team – where most of the players claimed to be registered – said several of the players on the list had never played football.
He told Newsnight’s inquiry: “I’ve seen people on the list who haven’t even worn a football strip in Herat.”
The false claims made by some women have angered many at home in Afghanistan.
Some of the women who did play for the national team were unable to come to the UK and are now living in Afghanistan under Taliban rule.
An anonymous player still in the country told Newsnight: “The Taliban have banned sports for women and girls.
“We are left in Afghanistan with no future. I just feel very neglected and very sad because we are the real players and not some of those who have been evacuated.’
Sabriah Nawrouzi, the former captain of the Herat Youth Team, told the inquiry that she first met some of the women who claimed to be part of the team in a hotel while waiting for a flight to the UK.
Afghan football players taking part in a friendly football match against Qatar women’s national team at Khalifa International Stadium in November 2021
Khalida Popal, former captain of the Afghanistan women’s national football team, speaks at the annual FIFA conference for equality and inclusion in March 2017
A charity worker who helped organize the flight to the UK claimed the Home Office failed to verify the women’s identities. She said they relied on the names one player, Khalida Popal, had given them.
The charity worker, Siu Anne Gill of the Rokit Foundation, told Newsnight that Ms Popal had personally mentioned more and more names and when they asked her if some of the women were definitely footballers, she confirmed they were.
Ms Popal denied any allegation that she knowingly included women who were not footballers. She told Newsnight in a statement: “I categorically deny the allegations made against me. I have repeatedly provided extensive evidence and explained why any suggestion that I played a formal role in the verification and/or knowingly misled anyone about the identity of the evacuees is wrong.”
A Home Office spokesperson told Newsnight: “We worked with a number of organizations who identified the group and referred it to us, conducting security checks as part of the process.
“Should there be evidence that the information provided was incorrect, the Ministry of the Interior will investigate.”
The Mail On Sunday’s carried out its own investigation in December 2021 which found that members of the national side had been left behind to make way for friends of older players.
The inquiry found that much of the criticism was directed at Ms Popal.
Arezo Rahimi, head of women’s football at the Afghan Football Federation, said at the time: ‘The majority of people on Ms Popal’s list are not players and their families at all. Most of the development team players are still stuck in Afghanistan – they live in fear and have no hope of getting out.”
Ms Popal also denied any wrongdoing in December 2021, saying her accusers were jealous of not being able to evacuate their own families.
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