Afghan Premier League scores with fans
Thousands of fans flock to inaugural league’s final match in Kabul, pitting Herat against Mazar.
Afghanistan’s first football Premier League, a six-week tournament pitting eight teams from the across the nation against each other, has been a huge success.
Football has always been dear to the Afghan people. In decades past, the national team travelled across the Asian continent in international matches, but the new league is the first series of organised matches pitting local teams against each other.
With 65 per cent of the population under 25, organisers see young people as the driving force behind the league’s resounding success.
Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith reports from Kabul where Herat’s Toofan Harirod beat Mazar-e-Sharif’s Simorgh Alborz to become league champions.