Female footballers who fled Afghanistan in 2021 criticise BBC’s ‘false footballers’ article

Members of the Afghan national women’s junior football team, before they were smuggled out of Afghanistan. Photograph: ROKiT Foundation/PA

Female football players who fled Afghanistan after Kabul fell to the Taliban in 2021 are criticising a recent BBC article which has labelled some of those evacuated as “false footballers”.

The investigation by BBC Newsnight said some of the descriptions of UK visa applicants as national players or members of a regional team “appear to be false”. The report said there is resentment among “genuine players” now living under Taliban rule.