DUSHANBE, October 23, Asia-Plus -- German Ambassador to Tajikistan Muller Rainer is receiving visiting Afghan national football team and German coach Klaus Schtrek, who now trains Afghan football players, today evening, Asia-Plus has learned from Mouso Barotov working with German Embassy in Dushanbe. 

According to him, Mr. Schtrek has worked in Kabul since 2005.      

Suhrob Qosimov, President of Tajikistan’s Football Federation, Sherali Davlatov, Secretary General of Tajikistan’s Football Federation, as well as senior representatives from some diplomatic missions accredited in Tajikistan have also been invited to the reception.  

On October 26, Afghan national football team will play the 2010 World Cup qualification with Syrian football players in Dushanbe.  The match was supposed to be held in Afghanistan but since the holding of the match is impossible in Afghanistan for security reasons, Football Federation of Tajikistan has expressed readiness to hold it in Dushanbe.   

The Afghanistan national football team is the national team of Afghanistan and is controlled by the Football Federation of Afghanistan.  The national team was founded in 1933 and joined FIFA in 1948 and AFC in 1954.  Afghanistan''s best performance in international competition was in the 1951 Asian Games when they finished 4th.  At present Afghanistan has low participation levels in football compared to many countries, and the game was not encouraged under the Taliban regime from 1996 to 2001.  Afghanistan played no international fixtures from 1984 to 2003, since when the team rose to a peak of 173rd in the FIFA World Rankings.