Football league brings fun to war-weary Afghans
KABUL. October 20. KAZINFORM "It is a great day. Millions of my war-tired people have fun today. It all thanks to football," an excited member of Afghan football champion team, Ahmad Hamid Jazemi, shouted among a crazy crowd.
The Afghanistan's first one-month long professional football league ended on Friday as western team Toofan Harirod beat northern team Simorgh Alborz 2-1 at the final match, Kazinform refers to Xinhua.
"'Toofan' means typhoon or storm and Harirod is an Afghan river in west. I have never thought one day I could be part of Toofan Harirod. I never thought football could bring such excessive fun to sport lovers in a war-torn country," Jazemi told Xinhua on Saturday after his team won the match held in a newly-built Afghanistan Football Federation (AFF) stadium in Kabul.
Afghanistan Premier League, the country's first professional football league, was launched in July by the AFF with the motivations of bringing peace to the insurgency-hit country.
"Holding this league is a great achievement for Afghanistan's football. It is the first national championship in the history of sport. It is an important step for sports and would promote football in the country," said AFF president Keramuddin Karim.
The championship, which consisted of eight teams from across the country, would help AFF to choose players for the national team, Karim told Xinhua.
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