October 15 – Scores of female players, including members of the national team, were evacuated from Afghanistan on Thursday on a flight to Doha in the latest move to escape Taliban rule.
“Around 100 footballers & their families including female players are on board,” Lolwah Al-Khater, Qatar’s assistant foreign minister, said in a tweet.
Sky reported that the group included at least 20 members of the national team. FIFA had been working closely with the Qatar authorities to coordinate the evacuation.
A source close to the operation was quoted as saying: “This has been a long negotiation since August to get the group out.”
It is not yet clear where the latest group, which also included support staff and coaches, will go from Doha. They were issued passports and official paperwork before they left Kabul according to reports.
Last month, female players from Afghanistan’s junior national team crossed the border into Pakistan after spending weeks in hiding amid fears of a crackdown by the Taliban.
In a statement FIFA confirmed the evacuation saying it took place “following complex negotiations” and thanked Qatar “for its support facilitating extensive discussions and for ensuring the safe passage of these individuals, deemed to have been at the highest risk, onto a Qatar Airways charter flight from Kabul, Afghanistan to Doha, Qatar.”
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