Reported by: Oahimire Omone Precious | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
Afghan female players win legal right to compete as official national team after FIFA Council amends governance regulations in landmark Vancouver meeting.
The FIFA Council has approved a momentous amendment to its Governance Regulations, enabling Afghan female players to represent their country in official international matches for the first time since the Taliban returned to power in 2021. The decision, ratified at the Council meeting in Vancouver on Tuesday, April 29, 2026, establishes an extraordinary legal pathway that bypasses the Taliban‑controlled Afghanistan Football Federation, which had refused to recognise or sanction a women’s national team . The reform empowers the FIFA Council, in consultation with the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), to establish and approve the registration of a national or representative team “under exceptional circumstances” where a Member Association is unable to do so, ensuring that players are not excluded from international football due to situations beyond their control .
The amendment directly benefits the FIFA‑funded and FIFA‑supported Afghan Women United squad, a refugee team formed by players who fled the country after the Taliban banned women’s sports in late 2021 . More than 80 Afghan refugee players are scattered across Australia, the United States, and Europe; before the Taliban takeover, Afghanistan had 25 women players under contract, most of whom now live in Australia . FIFA President Gianni Infantino called the decision “a powerful and unprecedented step in world sport,” stating that FIFA has listened to the players as part of its responsibility to protect the right of every girl and woman to play football and to represent who they are .
The change is too late for Afghanistan to qualify for the 2027 Women’s World Cup in Brazil, but the team could now enter qualifying for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, with a training camp scheduled for the first week of June in New Zealand .
The ruling has drawn an immediate reaction from the players. “It’s a hard slap to the face of the Taliban and those people who were against us,” national team goalkeeper Elaha Safdari told DW. “We are just showing that we are capable of doing amazing things through sports.”
Former captain Khalida Popal, who helped coordinate the evacuation of players in 2021, told Reuters: “For these players, representing Afghanistan is about identity, dignity and hope.” FIFA’s decision builds on the creation of Afghan Women United as a one‑year pilot in May 2025 and follows sustained advocacy from the players and human rights groups . The team took its first tentative steps back onto the international stage in October 2025, competing in an unofficial FIFA‑organised tournament in Morocco. Human Rights Watch called the action a model for how international sports bodies should respond when athletes are systemically excluded because of their gender .
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