National futsal team sportsman speaks out about financial struggles

Afghan National Futsal Team goalkeeper, Alireza Ghorbani, has spoken out about the hardships local sportsmen face – despite putting everything into their chosen sport.

Afghanistan proved a strong side during the 2017 Asian Indoor Games, making it all the way through to the semi-finals, before being knocked out by Japan.

Twenty-nine-year-old Ghorbani, was a key player during this tournament, as goalkeeper but feels his achievements at the games have been forgotten about.

Ghorani today works as a laborer on a construction site in Iran in order to provide for his family.

In a telephonic interview with Ariana News, Ghorbani criticizes the government for not supporting Afghan athletes.

“I already have done everything for my country, what disturbs me is that no one gives importance to what I did, even nobody asked me how are you doing,” Ghorbani said.

Athletes who are on the Afghan National Team – except for the cricket players – each receive a 1,000 AFN (about $15) a month. However, athletes have questioned this stating government pays the cricket players a lot more.

Reports indicate that the Afghan government had allocated 100 million AFN for the Afghanistan Cricket Board for the year 1400 while only 50 million AFN had been allocated for the remaining 34 remaining federations including Football.

The Afghanistan Football Federation says its players have to be financially reliant on domestic leagues.

But according to the organization, no organized league is being held in Afghanistan due to a lack of financial support.