FIFA and FIFPro work to evacuate Afghan footballers

Senegalese Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) Fatma Samoura confirmed that FIFA and FIFPro will cooperate to assist in the process of evacuating Afghan footballers who wish to leave their country, following the Taliban's takeover of power.

"We are working with (FIFPro)," the Secretary-General said in a statement to AFP, noting at the same time the need to assess "the number of players and players involved" in the evacuation process.

"We've done it in the past, and we should be able to do the same thing," Samura added, referring to the evacuation of soccer players from Afghanistan at an earlier stage.

For its part, FIFPro, in a tweet Friday, said that it was "in contact with governments to develop an evacuation plan for athletes at risk", aimed at "finding the largest possible number of people in safe places."

The union had received with great sadness the news of the death of the Afghan international player in the youth team, Zaki Anwari, at Kabul airport, after he was the victim of a fatal fall while trying to cling to an American plane to flee his country, after the "Taliban" regained control of it.

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