FIFA Grants Official Status to Afghan Women's Refugee Football Team

"Afghanistan's women's football team represents victory, peace and hope for Afghan women globally," declared Nilab Mohammadi last May, while uncertainty loomed over whether the squad she captained in 2018 would compete in official matches again. This week, FIFA delivered its verdict.

The international governing body approved changes to its regulations, enabling Afghan Women United — a team comprised of evacuated female footballers with refugee status — to participate as an officially recognized national side. The regulation FIFA modified? Typically, teams require approval from their national federation. However, the Afghan Football Federation operates under Taliban control, which prohibited women's athletics in 2021 and refuses to recognize women's teams. Seeking their authorization was never feasible.

Building a team from exile

Afghan Women United didn't materialize instantly. Three selection camps spanning Europe and Australia brought the roster together — although refugee players based in the United States were left out following FIFA's citation of unspecified security concerns, a rationale that remains inadequately explained.

The squad made their competitive appearance at the FIFA Unites tournament in Morocco last year, securing third place in a bracket featuring Chad, Tunisia and Libya. They dominated Libya 7-0 in their closing match. Hardly an insignificant achievement.

Afghanistan's women have been absent from FIFA's global rankings since disappearing from the 196-team roster — a result of playing no sanctioned football since 2018. This week's decision creates possibilities for reversing that. Whether FIFA establishes a legitimate competitive framework for them, or confines them to exhibition matches, will prove far more significant than the announcement alone.

Beyond Afghanistan

FIFA president Gianni Infantino presented this as a model — a mechanism for other member associations unable to field national teams to still engage in football's organizational structures. That deserves genuine consideration. Other football communities displaced by conflict or political repression exist where comparable arrangements could function.

Presently, however, this concerns a specific group of Afghan women who continued playing football in exile while their own federation denied their existence. Mohammadi stated it directly: "The rights and freedoms of women in Afghanistan must be highlighted and defended. This is our appeal to the world. Women's football means fighting for freedom and respect."

FIFA didn't establish that significance. The players created it, well before this week's decision.