Tue, 30 Nov, -0001
Kabul: The third season of the Roshan Afghan Premier League (RAPL) is set to start on Thursday with eight teams competing for the championship.
The eight teams will be representing eight zones which cover the 34 provinces of the current South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) champions.
All 18 matches of the league will be played at the Afghanistan Football Federation (AFF) Stadium in Kabul.
The RAPL is also seen as an ideal opportunity for players to break into the Afghanistan national team, with the previous two editions proving instrumental in finding talented Afghans who then went on to make history by winning the country’s first ever international tournament – last year’s the SAFF Championship in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu.
Yousof Kargar, AFF Vice President and coach of Afghanistan’s national team, said: “The success of the Afghan Premier League and the performance of our national football team led us to being nominated for [and winning] FIFA’s Fair Play Awards.
“For the RAPL’s third season, we hope to have matches on the same level as FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation,” the local Khaama Press quoted Kargar as saying.
Afghanistan, an active AFC Member Association, are one of Asia’s most improved footballing nations. Apart from being SAFF champions, they also reached the semi-finals of the AFC Challenge Cup 2014 in the Maldives.
Afghanistan’s progress has been helped by AFC’s Kick Off programme, a scheme designed to help the development of clubs, players and competitions within the country.
The South Asian country was also awarded FIFA 2013 FIFA Fair Play Award in recognition of the country’s remarkable achievements in developing football despite continuing to struggle with the legacy of decades of civil upheaval.