The two teams displayed a tremendous performance while they were cheered by thousands of football fans from around the country.

AVA- Shaheen Asmayee Football Club won the Afghan Premier League’s (APL) championship for the fourth time after winning the final match against De Maiwand Atalan F.C. from the south zone.

The match ended 4-3 in favor of Shaheen Asmayee.

The game started with the storm of strikes from the two sides. Shaheen scored two goals at the end of the first half.

The second half was started by attacks from De Maiwand Atalan players who succeeded to score their first goal in 46th minute of the match.

The second half ended with a draw of 2-2 between the two finalists.

The two teams played for another 30 minutes which finally Shaheen was in the lead and hit two more goals which made the result 4-3 in its favor. 

Shaheen Asmayee, De Maiwand Atalan, Toofan Harirod, Simorgh Alborz, Mawjhai Amu, De Spinghar Bazan, De Abasin Sape, and Oqaban Hindukosh are the eight APL teams representing all 34 provinces in Afghanistan.

The teams competed against each other in the group stage of the tournament with Shaheen Asmayee, De Maiwand Atalan, De Spinghar Bazan, and Simorgh Alborz advancing to the Semi-finals.

Afghan football fans were enthralled by hard battle and outstanding playing from all qualifying teams. Shaheen Asmayee and De Maiwand Atalan emerged victorious from the semi-finals and will face-off in the final match of the 2017 APL Championship.

This year, APL was honored to whistle the first evening football match in nearly four decades. With the lights beamed on inside the Afghan Football Federation (AFF) stadium, thousands of football fans crowded to cheer their favorite team and voice “One Nation, One Voice”. In addition, the first evening spectator event held in Afghanistan since 1979 was lauded by Afghans around the globe and different institutions.

De Maiwand Atalan are representing the south zone – Kandahar, Nimroz, Helmand, Zabul, and Uruzgan provinces – and the 2016 titleholders, Shaheen Asmayee, are the capital Kabul delegates.

This is the second consecutive year that Atalan and Shaheen are battling in the final match.

Last year, Shaheen thrashed 2-1 Atalan and won the 2016 APL Championship cup. APL has allocated prestigious trophies and cash prizes for the winner, runners-up, and third positioned teams of the 2017 APL Championship tournament.

According to a survey, more than 18.6 million viewers in the country as well as Afghans around the world watched the 2016 APL championship match between Shaheen Asmayee and De Maiwand Atalan via the APL’s YouTube channel and Tolo TV live stream.

Additionally, more than 7,500 spectators attended the final game last year.

Mohammad Yusuf Kargar, Deputy Technical Director of AFF; Boir Igamberdiev, De Maiwand Atalan coach; and Mujtaba Faiz, Shaheen Asmayee coach attended a press conference on Friday to talk about the final match and each team.

Kargar stated that preparation is taken to facilitate and conduct the final match between De Maiwand Atalan and Shaheen Asmayee in the best possible way.

“The final match will be judged by Tajik referees who will come from Tajikistan to Kabul today (Friday). We will continue our efforts to recognize the best APL players who are strong candidates to be added to the Afghanistan’s national team,” he said.

Boir and Faiz, De Maiwand Atalan and Shaheen Asmayee’s coaches, said their teams have been trained enough to tackle the final challenge.