London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

Evacuated Afghan women's team included 'false' footballers

Evacuated Afghan women's team included 'false' footballers

A high-profile evacuation to the UK of Afghan female footballers fleeing the Taliban included a number of women who were not the top-tier players that it was claimed, a BBC investigation has been told.

Thirty-five women and their families - 130 people in total - were flown to the UK from Pakistan in November 2021.

Women footballers were seen to be at risk from the Taliban, and some feared they would be punished for participating in a sport the new regime viewed as un-Islamic.

They were granted visas by the Home Office. However, Newsnight has had access to the list of evacuees that was submitted to the British authorities in order to obtain entry to the UK.

While the names and other identity details are genuine, the description of the principal applicants as national players or members of a regional team - in some cases - appears to be false.

The BBC spoke to a number of former Afghan players, coaches and officials who identified 13 individuals who they believed were not members of the teams listed.

Many of the evacuees were described as members of the Herat Youth Team. But Newsnight tracked down the team's former coach, Najibullah Nowroozi, who now works in women's football in Italy.

He says that when he saw the list of people who were evacuated, he wondered if some of them had ever visited the Herat football ground, let alone played for the national team: "I have seen people in the list who have not even worn a football strip in Herat."

There is resentment among genuine players now living under Taliban rule in Afghanistan, that others appear to have got out with false credentials.

One, who wishes to remain anonymous, tells Newsnight: "The Taliban have banned sports for women and girls... we are left behind in Afghanistan with no future. It just makes me feel very neglected and very sad because we are the real players and not some of those that got evacuated."

Sabriah Nawrouzi is a former captain of the Herat Youth Team who was evacuated along with her team-mates Narges Mayeli, Sahar Chamran and Fatemah Baratean.

She now plays football in the north of England. While staying in a Pakistan hotel en route for the UK, she says she met some women for the first time, who claimed to be part of her team.

Ms Nawrouzi says that once in England, she had to split the evacuees into two teams, because "because one team couldn't play football".

We tried to put the allegations to those football players who our sources claimed were not genuine, but only three responded. They all insisted they were footballers, although two of the women said they had never claimed to be national players.

Afghan footballer Sabriah Nawrouzi says that not all the evacuees to the UK could play the game


The football evacuation took place in the months following the fall of Kabul and was personally championed by Priti Patel, the home secretary at that time.

The Home Office says the move demonstrated the UK's commitment to helping at-risk Afghans resettle in the UK: "Their love of football put these women and girls at risk from the Taliban. We are proud that members of the Afghan Girls Development Squad and their family members were brought to safety in the UK."

Siu Anne Gill ran the Rokit Foundation charity which was involved in bringing the footballers to the UK. She says the Home Office failed to check the credentials of the women footballers on the flight, relying instead on names provided by former Afghan international player and campaigner Khalida Popal.

Ms Gill said: "Khalida Popal personally had been including more names and more names and more names. We asked Khalida, 'Did you check that these are footballers?' She said 'Yes, they're definitely footballers.'"

Ms Popal runs a non-profit organisation called Girl Power which works to empower women through sport. She says she didn't knowingly help non-footballers to claim asylum through the scheme, and told us that the Rokit Foundation had also removed and added others to the list.

Rokit accept that they added some names to the list, and that this was agreed between them and Ms Popal.

In a statement Ms Popal told Newsnight: "I categorically deny the allegations directed at me. I have repeatedly provided extensive evidence and explanations about why any suggestion that I had any formal role in verification and/or knowingly misled anyone about the identities of those evacuated is wrong."

A Home Office spokesman says: "We worked with a number of organisations who identified and referred the group to us, undertaking security checks as part of the process. Should there be evidence that the information provided was incorrect, the Home Office will investigate."

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×