Afghanistan’s U-15 Football Team left Kabul for Uzbekistan on Thursday morning to participate in the Central Asian Football Association (CAFA) tournament.

This will be the second year that Uzbekistan will host the tournament. Afghanistan is the defending champions.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Reza Mohammadi, Haleem Aqa Shirzad and Mohammad Sharif Sarwari, three Afghan international referees, will be the tournament’s refs.  

“This is a very good opportunity for us to get new experience and we are the champions of the first CAFA tournament,” said Wahidullah Wahidi, the team’s coach, adding that “this year we have prepared well and we hope we see good results.”

The tournament will start on Sunday and Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Iran, and Turkmenistan will take part.

The event, that will be held in Tashkent, will end on July 30.

Afghanistan will face Tajikistan in their opening match on July 22.

“We have been preparing for the matches for almost a month, and now we hope to defend our title,” said Baktash Forotan, one of the players.

Mohammad Payman Ikrami, another Afghan player, said: “Playing in CAFA is a very good opportunity to prove ourselves and we hope that once again webring honor to Afghanistan. We will go for victory in these matches.”

Afghanistan will play against Kyrgyzstan, Iran, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan after the opening match – in that order.