Kabul stadium preened
for 'Game of Unity'
Rosalind Russell
Ground staff at the Kabul stadium swept a dusty pitch and sniffer dogs checked for landmines on Wednesday in preparation for a sell-out football match between international troops and Kabul United.
Friday's match is aimed at developing good relations between the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and the soccer-mad Afghan people, who have already snapped up more than 30,000 tickets.
Former Tottenham Hotspur skipper Gary Mabbutt flew into Kabul earlier this week to train the ISAF squad while ex-England coach and Southampton manager Lawrie McMenemy was training the Afghan side. English premier league referee Peter Jones will officiate.
The match, which the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) sees as helping ease Afghan football back into the mainstream, will be played in a stadium that was the scene of some of the worst atrocities of the former Taliban regime, including public executions and lashings.
"We were very aware that when we started playing here you could actually see bullet scorch marks where people had been executed," said ISAF team captain, 29-year-old Jonny Crook.
"There are some horrific stories about people being executed during the half-time of matches. Hopefully this normal football match will demonstrate a sea change in the environment of Kabul."
The 20-player ISAF squad is made up of 12 British troops, two Frenchmen and soldiers from Italy, Germany, Spain, Denmark and the Netherlands.
Kabul United has been created from the best players from teams across the capital for the so-called "Game of Unity" which will be watched by interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai.
The Afghanistan Football Association was formed in 1933, joined world football body FIFA in 1948 and was a founder member of the AFC in 1954.
But Afghan football has taken heavy knocks during 23 years of conflict and standards have slipped since the glory days of the early 1970s when the national side boasted victories over Iran, India and Pakistan.
SCRUBBY GRASS
The ISAF team is favourite to win and lift the premiership trophy, on loan from the English Football Association (FA).
"I would hope it's going to be a good match and a fair match," said referee Peter Jones as he inspected the scrubby grass pitch surrounded by uncovered, stone terraces.
"We want to play a part in bringing smiles back to people's faces in Kabul."
McMenemy said it is time to pack up the past.
"This stadium was notorious for all the wrong reasons," he said. "It was meant for sport, and this game is a signal for everyone that normality is returning."
Kabul, a city half destroyed by war, has enjoyed a few weeks of relative calm since the six-month interim government led by Karzai took power in December.
Nearly 4,000 ISAF troops are on patrol in the capital to ensure security after the U.S. air campaign against the Taliban and the al Qaeda guerrilla network of Osama bin Laden, chief suspect in the September 11 attacks in the United States.
