They play their home games at the Ghazi National Olympic Stadium in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan.

Prior to 2002, Afghanistan was last seen on the international stage during the 1984 AFC Asian Cup qualification, with its last match lost 6–1 against Jordan on 20 September 1984.

[7] Following the demise of the Taliban regime, the Afghan national team eventually returned to the international arena in 2002, when they played South Korea in the Asian Games, losing 2–0.

Afghanistan participated in their first international tournament in the 2003 SAFF Gold Cup, where they lost all three group stage matches to India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Later in the same year, Afghanistan took part in the 2004 AFC Asian Cup qualification where they won against Kyrgyzstan but lost to Nepal and failed to make it to the next round.

The team went to Pakistan to take part in the 2005 South Asian Football Federation Gold Cup, which they lost to the Maldives.

In the 2008 AFC Challenge Cup, Afghanistan lost all group matches to India, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

[10] Afghanistan competed in their third World Cup qualifying campaign playing the first leg of their first match against Palestine in Tajikistan due to security reasons, which they lost, and the second leg of the match in Palestine which they drew with Balal Arezou scoring, meaning they failed to advance to the second round and were eliminated.

In the Semi-final of the tournament, the Afghans faced Nepal whom they beat 1–0 in extra time with the only goal scored by Balal Arezou in the 101st minute.

In the second qualification round, Afghanistan lost to Nepal and North Korea, whilst beating Sri Lanka but failed to qualify for the next stage.

[11] Players for the league were found through a reality television show called Maidan e Sabz ("Green Field").

On 20 August 2013 before the 2013 SAFF Championship Afghanistan played Pakistan in a FIFA approved friendly for the first time in 36 years.

This was also the first time on home ground after a decade which ended with a 3–0 victory over Pakistan with goals from Sandjar Ahmadi, Ahmad Hatifi and Maruf Mohammadi.

[14] Afghanistan entered the 2013 SAFF Championship as the highest ranked team by FIFA in the tournament placed at 139th.

The Final match of the tournament saw the 2011 SAFF Championship finalists again at Dashrath Stadium Nepal, where Afghanistan outplayed the defending champions India by 2 goals.

Goals from Azadzoy and Sandjar Ahmadi in each half of the game put the Afghan football team in front, to claim their first SAFF Championship title in their history.

In the 2014 AFC Challenge Cup, Afghanistan did well to reach the Semi-final, losing to the eventual champions Palestine, 2–0.

At the 2014 Ballon D'or ceremony, the Afghanistan Football Federation won the FIFA Fair Play Award.

FIFA made a statement and posted on its website that "Following a year of remarkable achievement in grassroots level football, building infrastructure to further develop football throughout the country and nurturing a professional league despite enduring over a decade of disorder stemming from war, Afghanistan has been presented the 2013 FIFA Fair Play Award."

In November 2015, the Afghan National Team announced that Petar Segrt was appointed as the new head coach.

Eventually after reaching the final quite easily, Afghanistan had to play against tournament favorite India.

Segrt disagreed with the AFF and made the decision to quit as the head coach of the national team.

In February 2017, the AFF announced the signing of Otto Pfister as the new head coach of the national team.

[21] The important Asian Cup qualification match against Vietnam ended in a 1–1 draw with a goal from Hassan Amin.

The Ghazi Stadium was renovated in 2011 after the entire ground was removed and replaced with new soil and artificial turf placed on top.

In 2011 the Afghanistan Football Federation had signed a four-year contract with Hummel, to provide both the men's and women's national teams with all of the sportswear from 2011 to 2015.

It included an integrated hijab for the female Afghanistan footballers to play with while being covered from head to toe.

[31] In December 2018, Hummel announced that it will no longer sponsor Afghanistan's football association after allegations emerged of physical, psychological and sexual abuse committed by male employees against the country's women's national team's players.

[34] Due to the historical, cultural and political relationship between the two countries, contests against Pakistan generate much enthusiasm amongst Afghan football fans on account of their mutual relations and have been referred to as a "rivalry",[34][35][36] although the interest in Pakistan toward the rivalry and for football in general is more muted.

Win Draw Loss Fixture The following 23 players were named in the squad for the friendly matches against    Nepal and  Tajikistan between 16 and 19 November 2024.