The Afghan Premier League (APL), also known as Rahmani Foundation Afghan Premier League, as a sponsorship deal, is a professional men's soccer league run by the AFF. It is the country's primary competition for the sport. The League commenced in September 2012 and is currently contested by eight teams. Seasons usually runs from September, followed by final series involving two highest-placed teams in each group. National champions gains qualification into the Asian FC continental competition. Most games are played at the AFF Stadium in Kabul.
Since the league's first season, a total of three clubs have been crowned Afghan Premier League champions. Shaheen Asmayee have the record of 5 premier league titles, the most a team has won. The team is also the current champions, winning 1–0 in the 2020 Afghan Premier League final against Simorgh Alborz FC.
The League was established in 2012 with the first season running through September and October of that year. 8 teams were concurrently established in 2012 to become the inaugural competitors. Before 2012, the league in Afghanistan was broken down into 7 groups that covered the country.
Players for the league were selected with the help of a reality television talent show called Maidan e sabz ("The Green Pitch"), helmed by Mokhtar Lashkari, star of Tolo TV, Afghanistan's equivalent of The Oprah Winfrey Show.
The concept came from the AFF and the Afghanistan-based Moby Group, which owns a number of TV channels and radio stations and is the largest media group in the country. MOBY Group channels will broadcast matches. Players were voted onto teams by a jury and by the television audience. The 34 provinces were grouped into eight larger zones. Eight teams of 18 players, one from every region, were formed.
The Afghan High Peace Council has praised the creation and development of the League as an, "opportunity to bring peace and stability" to Afghanistan. The process has given opportunities to minorities such as the Hazara who were treated as an underclass. Many players and supporters have undergone considerable trauma for which the League serves as a form of therapy. Along with the Shpageeza Cricket League, which started in 2013, Afghan Premier League football is one of the few big sporting competitions in Afghanistan, offering precious relief from the violence of every day life.
The first football games to be played in Afghanistan were played between 4 school teams back in 1923, these four teams were Maktab Habibiyeh, Maktab Esteghlal, Tafrih Team and Mohajer Team.
The first domestic club league was established in 1946 with the foundation of the Kabul City League (not existing now) comprising 12 clubs. Other regional or city leagues existed in the seventies in Herat, Kandahar and Mazar-e Sharif.
The first Afghan football club was Mahmoudiyeh FC, which was founded in 1934. The team traveled to India three years later and took part in 18 games of which 8 were won, 9 lost and 1 tied. Ariana Kabul FC was established in 1941 and became the second Afghan football club. In the same year the National team (Ariana Kabul F.C.) was formed when it played the Iran national team in a 0–0 draw for first international game.
Afghanistan did not play a competitive international match from 1984 until 2002, when it competed at the Asian Games. The results were 10–0 to Iran, 11–0 against Qatar and 11–0 to Lebanon. The nation recorded its first victory in almost 20 years in March 2003 when they beat Kyrgyzstan 2–1 in an Asian Cup qualifying match.Their results in the 8-nation South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Cup were also respectable – losing to Sri Lanka and Pakistan 1-0 and India 4–0.
In 2007, the international womens team was created.
On 20 August 2013, Afghanistan defeated Pakistan in a friendly football match that was held in Kabul. The following month, during the Afghanistan beat six-times South Asian tournament-champion, India and received its first international football trophy. Afghans celebrated their victory all across the country.
Shaheen Asmayee FC have won a record 5 Afghan Premier League titles (2013,14,16,17 and 2020 They are the only team to have reached the Afghan Premier League final in eight consecutive seasons (2013–2020). The PL clubs are mainly based in Herat, Kabul, Khost, Kandahar, Jalalabad, Kunduz, Ghazni and Mazar. There are two other "regional divisions" covering the country
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