I think the biggest mover for the creation of this federation was so that the member nations could at least get a voice within the AFC, which wasn't actually a bad move for the likes of Iran as they were always going to get shunned and shafted by the West Asians. Biggest question is....do we really need a competition for the sake of a competition? The member nations seemed happy before hand, so to create a tournament brings what for them? Afghanistan seem like they could play in SAFF Championship for ever and ever anyway.
What was this all about? Under 15 CAFA Championship that took place in Japan! http://afghanistantimes.af/cafa-championship-afghan-u-15-football-squad-off-to-japan/
That is because the JFA has provided grassroots resources to develop the youth of Afghan football. Its a joint-venture which will also allow potential young talented Afghan's to gain sponsorship to play and study in Japan.
Good question, but I would ask, if a tournament does take place, it wont be for the sake of it, it will be to give this region further games to develop and become a force in Asia.
So the 2nd round of the joint Asian and World Cup qualifiers is finished. Overall CAFA was represented well by its members. Uzbekistan after a supra sing 4-2 loss to North Korea in their opening game managed to make a great recovery winning all 7 of their remaining games and topping the group of death. Uzbekistan are definitely dark horses for the next round. Iran as expected topped their group however there were a few bumps along the road. They should qualify for the World Cup if they want to cement themselves as one of Asia's elites. Kyrgyzstan really suprised me with how good they performed in the qualifiers. They swept Bangladesh aside, beat Tajikistan away, beat Jordan, and their results vs Australia were respectable. The most impressive part of this all is they only had two African players who barely featured. Oh also they saved our asses. They will definitely be competitive in which ever group they're put in. Turkmenistan also had a successful campaign beating India twice, drawing at home against Iran, and beating Oman at home. They showed that they can trouble any team in Asia while playing at home though they lost 3/4 of their away matches. They need to sort out their away performances and probably set up some friendlies with Arab nations. Afghanistan had high hopes coming into the 2nd round with new manager Slaven Skeldic however we were in for a rude awakening. We were thrashed at "home" 6-0 in our first game against Syria, scrapped a 1-0 win vs Cambodia, we're thrashed again 6-0 at home vs Japan then, Very unluckily beaten 1-0 by Singapore, then again beaten 5-2 away to Syria. The Syria was the straw that broke the camels back and Slaven was sacked and replaced with Petar Segrt. Segrt brought unity and a offensive style of football to Afghanistan. In his first game we beat Cambodia 3-0 and though we lost the next game 5-0 away to Japan (not a terrible result) we ended it on a high with a 2-1 win vs Singapore which gave us direct qualification to the third round. If we want to qualify for the Asian cup we will need to be stronger mentally vs the big teams and I'm sure Petar will achieve this. Tajikistan had a very poor campaign missing out on direct qualification to the 3rd round on the last day. Will be very disappointing for them of they are eliminated in the play offs.
Kyrgystan latest: v Lebanon 2/6/16 v Kazakhstan 30/8/16 v Phillipines 6/9/16 v Phillipines 9/11/16 Turkmenistan latest: v Vietnam 30/5/16 Tajikistan latest: v Bangladesh (playoff 2/6/16) v Bangaldesh (play off 7/6/16) Afghanistan Latest No organised friendlies as yet Iran and Uzbekistan have only June16 for friendlies as they will participate in the 3rd round of qualifiers.
First CAFA Women's U19 Championship being held in Uzbekistan right now. Results: Uzbekistan U19 8:1 Tajikistan U19 Iran U19 4:1 Kyrgzstan U19 Iran U19 6:0 Tajikistan U19
Central Asian players joining IPL first division this season are : 1. Server Djeparov from Uzbekistan joined Sepahan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_Djeparov 2. Aziz Ibragimov from Uzbekistan joined Machine Sazi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aziz_Ibragimov 3. Feysal Shayesteh from Afghanistan joined Peykan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faysal_Shayesteh We have had many players from Uzbekisan before but we got our first Afghan player this year. I hope Iranian teams sign Tajik players too. Some Central Asian players who have played in PGPL 1. Fozil Musaev https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fozil_Musaev 2. Alexander Lobanov https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Lobanov_(footballer) 3. Bahodir Nasimov https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahodir_Nasimov Hopefully Uzbeks also sign some good players from other central Asian nations. I think it is a good idea after WCQs end this year, we have a central Asian competition to promote good football in this region.
Uzbek clubs used to sign mostly Turkmen players among CA nations. Currently, Turkmenistan NT players Artur Gevorkyan (Qizilqum), Arslanmyrat Amanov (Olmaliq) playing in Uzbek league. Long before Turkmenistan NT captain Gochkuli Gochkuliev was the main CB of Pakhtakor. The only successful Tajik player in our league was Akmal Kholmatov which captained Neftchi Fergana for a long time. I guess he had played in Iranian team as well.
I had no idea Akmal Kholmatov played for Pas. Pas used to be a giant club from Tehran belonged to Tehran police academy. Nekounam was their greatest player. They even won ACL once is 1992-1993. Akmal Kholmatov didn't play for Pas Tehran but for their knock off in Hamedan. Our stupid President back then, Mr. AN, had this idea of spreading the famous clubs to other cities so all people have a representative in PGPL without thinking a team has its roots among fans and followers in the local society and it gets strong by using their local facilities and resources. They dissolved Pas Tehran with much history and transferred the staff and players to Hamedan, a city with no passion for football or any team in top 3 divisions in 2007. In less than 2 years most of players and management team left Hamedan and joined other strong teams in Tehran, Ahvaz and Esfahan. Pas Hamedan is struggling in third division now! A sad story and painful lesson for those who were managing our league back in the days. The real Pas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PAS_Tehran_F.C. http://www.transfermarkt.com/pas-teheran/startseite/verein/26312 The uprooted and weak successor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PAS_Hamedan_F.C. http://www.transfermarkt.com/pas-hamedan/startseite/verein/54 It is good to hear stronger central Asian clubs hire other fellow central Asians from weaker leagues.