KABUL (SW): Afghanistan Football Federation (AFF) announced today that the national team would play a friendly match against Malaysia in October.
Malaysian football officials hinted last month that the game against Afghanistan would be played but the exact date was not given then. The statement issued by AFF has noted that the game against Malaysia on October 11 would be played after a game against Lebanon. This is going to be the second time Afghanistan would take on Malaysia. In the previous encounter in 2008, Afghanistan lost to Malaysia 0-6.
The AFF has noted that the match against Malaysia would be played in Kuala Lumpur on 3 pm Afghanistan local time. Before this match however, Afghanistan has another big match to play against Lebanon, which would be played on September 5. These two are the only international games announced by the AFF for the national squad in later part of the ongoing year.
The idle AFF has been blamed for the fall in ranking of the national Afghan squad. In the latest FIFA ranking, Afghanistan has fallen by nine slots from 147 to 156th. It is worth noticing that countries like Malaysia, Tajikistan and India are busy in qualifying rounds for the Asia Cup and if they displayed good performance and Afghanistan remain idle, it would further lose its standing in the international arena.
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