Visa issues surrounding Afghanistan’s football team being allowed to play in Pakistan have been resolved, allowing the team to travel to Islamabad for Thursday’s AFC Asian Cup qualifier at the Jinnah Stadium, Home Minister Mohsin Naqvi said on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Pakistan Football Federation president Mohsen Gilani said his Afghanistan counterpart had not been able to ensure the presence of their entire traveling team at the Pakistan Embassy in Kabul for biometric verification as most of the players did not live in the country.
The Afghanistan Football Federation was summoned by the Afghan voice agency As stating that he had sent the initial list of team members to the Pakistan Embassy on September 18, but “despite repeated follow-ups and official contacts, no visas have been issued to the players and officials.”
Today, Minister Naqvi took to X to announce that the issue had been resolved.
“Issued now,” he said in response to journalist Faizan Lakhani’s post saying that the minister ordered to resolve the visa issue of the Afghanistan football team.
“Thank you for highlighting it,” Naqvi added.
Uncertainty surrounded the qualifier due to the latter not securing visas for its players earlier.
Reports from Afghanistan said that all of their national team players had gathered in Dubai on Tuesday night, and were awaiting visa clearance.
Both Pakistan and Afghanistan are pointless after losing their opening two matches in group ‘E’ against Syria and Myanmar. The two sides have a double-header in this international window, with Afghanistan to host Pakistan in Al Ardiya, Kuwait, for the return game on October 14.
The group winner advances to the 2027 AFC Asian Cup in Saudi Arabia.
