Several players have resigned from Afghanistan’s national football team accusing the Afghanistan Football Federation (AFF) of corruption.
In a statement on Tuesday, October 24, Faysal Shayesteh, former national captain, claimed that certain individuals in the AFF are involved in scathing corruption. Zolfeqar Nazari, Rahmat Akbari, Yama Sherzad, Najm Haidari, Omid Popalzay, and Imran Haidari are other players who have made similar statements on social media.
“It is with regret that we, the players of the Afghanistan national football team, announce that we are no longer willing to cooperate or play in the national team that is mired with corruption,” said Shayesteh in a post on his official Facebook page.
He has alleged that Mohammad Yusuf Kargar, president of the AFF, Bahram Sediqi, General Secretary of AFF, and members of the Executive Committee have distributed half of the $30,000 gift dedicated to national players among themselves. The AFF leadership has not yet reacted to this accusation.
Shayesteh and his fellow teammates have also claimed that members of the AFF leadership are misappropriating money from airfare tickets of players for traveling to those countries where they play matches.
Additionally, these players said that the AFF has decided to move the team’s home leg from neighboring Tajikistan’s Dushanbe capital to Saudi Arabia allegedly for “gaining more money” from the Saudis, without clarifying further.
National Football team captain Farshad Noor has also accused the AFF president of corruption. In a separate post on Instagram, Noor alleged that Kargar has “stolen money in our good and bad times,” saying that he will resume playing in the team only when “this person [Kargar] and his companions step down.”
The resignations of Afghanistan’s key players come ahead of the second round of the FIFA World Cup 2026 preliminary matches set for later this month. Afghanistan, ranked 158th, has currently secured a spot in the second round of the World Cup and Asian Cup 2027 joint qualifiers.
Last week, the national football team dismissed its coach Abdullah Al-Mutairi, who had refused to sign the match sheet before Afghanistan’s qualifying play-off against Mongolia, which they eventually won 1-0. Several players, including its captain Farshad Noor, said that most of the players of the national team do not accept Al-Mutairi as the head coach, who was appointed in April this year.
