In Pictures: Afghanistan’s football league

Over 5,000 thousand fans crammed into the Kabul stadium to watch the final which took place near the notorious Ghazi stadium where the Taliban held public executions [AFP]

The six-week tournament pitted eight teams from across the nation against each other. All of Afghanistan(***)s 34 provinces were represented in the tournament, which was broadcast live on television and radio [AFP]

"We(***)ve come a long way from Herat to cheer for our team," one fan told Al Jazeera(***)s Bernard Smith. "More than a thousand of us have made this journey." [AFP]

With 65 per cent of the population under 25, organisers see young people as the driving force behind the league(***)s success. "They [young people] are lovers of sport and lovers of football and that is what we see today", league organiser Said Safiq Gawhari told Al Jazeera. [AFP]

"Football is helping these boys by providing a platform for youths to have something to turn to besides drug addiction or joining the insurgency," said Afghan Football Federation official Ali Askar Lali [AFP]

The prize money is not bad either - $15,000 dollars for the winning team, which is a lot for the players – selected through a reality TV show – who have been earning $10 a day [AFP]

National hero Rohullah Nikpai, a Taekwondo Olympian who won bronze medals in Beijing and London was on hand to dish out the golden football shoe trophy to the winning team [AFP]

And in an historic moment, earlier in the evening two Kabul-based women(***)s teams made up of national squad members played in front of the largest ever crowd for a women(***)s match on Afghan soil [AFP]