KABUL (SW): Afghanistan’s national football team is finally set to have some action as Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) has announced to play against Afghanistan later this year.
A sport news portal Goal.com has noted this in a report about the fixtures planned by FAM for September and October 2016. It has quoted Datuk Hamidin Mohd Amin, the FAM Secretary General saying that they have arranged four more matches to be played according to the FIFA Calendar, but the final decision is up to the national head coach, Datuk Ong Kim Swee.
“We are expected to play an away match against Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia and Afghanistan at home, but it all depends on Kim Swee.”
Meanwhile, FAM Deputy President Datuk Abdul Mokhtar Ahmad has said that the Oceania tour would be a great opportunity for the national team to boost their FIFA rankings.Malaysia is currently ranked 173rd in the world ranking and Mokhtar said, playing a series of ‘A’ list games can boost the nation’s ranking.
Afghanistan on the other end is ranked 156th in the FIFA ranking but lack of action is likely to further push it down. In the latest FIFA ranking, Afghanistan has fallen by nine slots from 147th to 156th.
The decline in ranking is likely force Afghanistan to compete in third tier of qualifiers for the Asia Cup matches against the previous second tier.
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 remains idle, it would further lose its standing in the international arena.
ENDS
