KABUL, Afghanistan — The Olympic Stadium in
Kabul has not seen this big a crowd since the
Taliban used the place for public executions, with
attendance mandatory.
No coercion was needed on Thursday to bring tens
of thousands of delirious fans here to greet their
national soccer team on its return from winning its
first international championship. The underdog team
stunned India, the defending South Asian
champions, in a 2-0 victory in Katmandu, Nepal.
In fact, the police were trying, in vain, to keep them
all out, worried that members of the crowd would
get out of control and hurt the team with their
adulation — which very nearly happened in some
cases.
Few things could better symbolize the drastic social
changes in Afghanistan since the Taliban era, when
soccer was banned, even for small children. During
the group’s five-year reign, and most of the 10 years
of civil war that preceded it, Afghanistan did not
even field a team in international competition.
Members of the Afghan national soccer team, which
stunned India, the defending South Asian
champions, in a 2-0 victory in Katmandu, Nepal.
AHMAD JAMSHID / ASSOCIATED PRESS
Now the Afghan national team is on a roll, flattening
Pakistan’s national team 3-0 in a friendly match last
month held in a new stadium complete with artificial
turf. But beating India, a country just as soccer mad
and 40 times as populous, and for the South Asia
Cup honors, sent Afghans into the streets for what
turned into a 24-hour party.
Thousands of tracer rounds lighted up the sky here
in Kabul and drowned out everything else for half an
hour as the game ended on Wednesday night. A plea
by the Kabul police and the National Directorate of
Security not to shoot into the air to celebrate went
unheeded. In fact, many of the most intense salvos
were coming from police station compounds.
City hospitals reported at least five people wounded
by falling bullets. But many people wisely stayed
wherever they were, with many impromptu
sleepovers at places of business, and celebrations
could be heard around the clock.
When the team arrived home at Kabul International
Airport on Thursday afternoon, the traffic jams put
to shame the vast ones that occur when President
Hamid Karzai travels by convoy through the streets.
Several square miles of the city were mobbed with
fans, heading for the Olympic Stadium on foot.
Many of the celebrators were quick to note that for
once they had something to be proud of that had
nothing to do with war.
“Our victory showed the international community
that we are not the nation of war,” said Sara Rana,
18, a high school senior. “We can do it, no matter
how hard the job.”
And many noted as well that ethnic rivalries and
political differences were all forgotten as people cut
Afghan flags into tunics and sewed them into shirts;
painted their faces with black, red and green stripes;
and climbed onto any vehicle that was moving — half
a dozen to a motorcycle, 20 to a small car, 100 to a
minibus.
Nor were the Taliban forgotten, entirely. “I want the
Taliban to stop war and drop their weapons and join
the peace process to help the country progress,
through sports and other peaceful activities,” said
Jafar Ahmadi, 18, another high school senior.
There was no sign, however, that the insurgents
were ready to abandon their doctrinal opposition to
having fun, with games of all sorts banned because
they divert young people from prayer and religious
studies.
The normally garrulous and accessible spokesman
for the Taliban, Zabiullah Mujahid, could not be
reached for comment on Thursday despite numerous
efforts.
Even in Kandahar, the insurgents’ historic heartland,
huge crowds turned out to celebrate, many flying
the national flag that was revived after the Taliban
fell and took their stark white banner with them.
At the Olympic Stadium, as the soccer team
assembled on a raised dais with assorted dignitaries,
the police chained the gates to keep the crowds from
flooding into the already full stadium, which has
seating for only 15,000.
“I don’t know how to express my excitement about
the victory,” Gen. Zahir Akhbar, head of the Afghan
Olympic Committee, said from the besieged dais.
“Now, this is the time Afghan politicians should learn
from national football.”
Certainly there were none of the usual ethnic
squabbles, and good will was in abundant supply —
even as the excitement threatened to spiral out of
control. People climbed up the high stanchions of the
overhead lights and the bleachers, and finally
battered down the locked gates of the stadium and
poured onto the field, trying desperately to reach the
players.
The police evacuated the players after one was
overcome with adulation. “He was about to get killed
by the crowd because they all jumped on him,” one
policeman said.
Sanjar Ahmadi, a forward who scored a goal both in
the Pakistan and India victories and is now a
national hero, was among the first to be taken away
in an armored police van surrounded by officers.
The police finally regained control and got all the
players safely into armored cars. Even then, Kabul’s
deputy police chief, Dawood Amin, said several of
the vehicles suffered broken windshields from so
many people standing on top of them.
“People were kissing and touching the vehicles as if
they were a shrine, not a vehicle,” he said, laughing
cheerfully.
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