Afghanistan will play in Asian Games soccer tournament

The Asian Football Confederation announced in a statement Tuesday that Afghanistan would play in the Under-23 tournament at the games in Busan, South Korea, in the Group E slot vacated by Mongolia. Afghanistan's first match would be against Iran on Sept. 28. The group's other teams are Qatar and Lebanon.

Afghanistan was a founding member of the confederation in the 1950s before entering long periods of war and factional fighting that largely ended after U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban regime last year in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

Most sports were outlawed by the hardline Islamic Taliban who declared games to be frivolous and un-Islamic. The militia turned soccer stadiums into public execution grounds, shooting people, hanging them from goalposts or chopping off their limbs for violating the strict Islamic laws in force at the time.

But since the Taliban's ouster soccer, volleyball and other sports have returned to the streets and stadiums of Afghanistan.

During the soccer World Cup in June, the president of Afghanistan's football association, Abdul Alim Kohistani, said he hoped his country would be able to field a side in the Asian Games.

"We have been in the football wilderness for 20 years and we are eager to make a quick impact," Kohistani was quoted as saying in the AFC's official magazine, Football Asia.