Afghan women footballers will be able to return to official FIFA matches and tournaments after world football’s governing body approved an exceptional reform allowing their registration as a national team without depending on the Afghanistan Football Federation. The measure will allow Afghan players in exile, including members of Afghan Women United, to compete as representatives of Afghanistan in FIFA tournaments, in coordination with the Asian Football Confederation -AFC-.

The decision resolves a conflict that international football had left pending since 2021. Afghan women footballers had been trapped between a political reality that prevented them from playing inside the country and a federative structure that required approval from a national association unable to recognise them. After the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, the Afghan women’s national team, created in 2007, stopped competing officially and many players were forced to flee to countries such as Australia, Portugal, Albania, the United Kingdom and the United States. FIFA now restores sporting identity to a group of players who had lost their national team, calendar and official recognition, although the solution arrives after several competitive cycles have already closed.

FIFA closes a regulatory loophole

The amendment approved by the FIFA Council allows the organisation, in consultation with the relevant confederation, to establish or approve the registration of a national or representative team when a member association is unable to do so. In practice, FIFA has created an exceptional pathway so that players are not excluded from international competition due to circumstances beyond their control, in line with its principles of universality, inclusion and non-discrimination.

The change builds on the Strategy for Action for Afghan Women’s Football, approved by FIFA in May 2025, and on the creation of Afghan Women United, a team made up of Afghan refugee footballers spread across different countries. That structure offered playing, selection and preparation opportunities, but it did not yet amount to full reintegration as a national team in official competitions. FIFA will now lead the necessary administrative, operational and sporting steps, with human, technical and financial support, and will maintain support packages for the players during a transition phase of up to two years.

Identity, dignity and a pending form of redress

For Afghan women footballers, the return is not only competitive. Representing Afghanistan again is a matter of identity, dignity and belonging after years playing as refugees, as guests or under temporary structures. Khalida Popal, former captain and one of the leading voices of the campaign, summed up the meaning of the decision by saying that representing the country is “a matter of identity, dignity and hope”.

The measure has also been received as a precedent in the protection of female athletes’ rights in exceptional situations. Nadia Nadim, who was born in Afghanistan and became an international player for Denmark, said the decision recognises Afghan women footballers “not as victims of circumstance, but as elite players with the right to compete, be seen and be respected”. Andrea Florence, executive director of the Sport & Rights Alliance, stressed that the reform shows that sports governing bodies can adapt their rules to protect human rights when circumstances demand it.

What was lost and what now opens up

The reform also exposes FIFA’s delay in responding to an exclusion that clashed with the current discourse of international sport. It is a major step forward, but it comes after years of pressure from players, activists and human rights organisations. For almost five years, Afghan women footballers remained outside the international competitive system because the regulations effectively transferred the Taliban’s ban into global football. That delay is especially uncomfortable for a FIFA that has placed the growth of women’s football, inclusion and non-discrimination at the centre of its institutional message.

The sporting cost is already clear. Afghanistan will not be able to take part in qualifying for the 2027 Women’s World Cup in Brazil, and the team has lost years of official competition, development, ranking, international match practice, funding and visibility. The Sport & Rights Alliance had already denounced the team’s absence from the draw for the AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2026 qualifiers, a competition that fed into the pathway to the 2027 World Cup, meaning a second World Cup cycle affected by exclusion since the Taliban’s return to power.

The new regulatory pathway could allow Afghan women footballers to compete in future FIFA tournaments and keeps open the possibility of entering the qualification process for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games. The immediate task will be to turn the decision into a stable, safe and competitive structure, with a calendar, funding, coaching staff and sporting recognition. Andrea Florence summed up the political scope of the measure by saying that “no government should have the power to erase women from public life”.