Afghanistan

If I was to collect the shirts in alphabetical order then this would have been my first shirt, but I didn’t, so it’s my 160th.
A couple of years ago Afghanistan were rock bottom of the FIFA world rankings, but a recent 5-0 aggregate win over Bhutan and an AFC Cup win against Sri Lanka has pulled them up the the dizzy heights of 174th.

Afghanistan – Away – 2009

Hummel are possibly my favourite kit manufacturer. Not only do they make fantastic shirts (see Sierra Leone, Zanzibar, Tibet and Uganda), but they also go beyond sponsorship and help develop the game in the countries they sponsor.

A collector from Australia recently got in contact with me and gave me contact details for someone who works at Hummel. The guy a Hummel was brilliant, he gave me a whole load of information about the Afghanistan national team and how they were working with them. When the shirt arrived I also had a Hummel pen drive with promotional videos of the Afghanistan men and womens teams. The new shirt should be out in the summer and you can bet that I’ll be first in line to get it.

In the mean time, if they’ve still got any left, check out the Hummel online store.

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Spotlight on Africa

There are 53 FIFA members (and 2 non-FIFA members) in CAF. These are split into 5 seperate unions/associations/federations.



Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations (5/10)

West Africa Football Union (13/16)

Union des Fédérations de Football d’Afrique Centrale (1/8)

  • Cameroon
  • Central African Republic
  • Chad
  • Congo, Republic of
  • Congo, Democratic Republic of
  • Equatorial Guinea
  • Gabon
  • Sao Tome and Principe

Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (7/14)

Union of North African Football Federations (4/5)

New Zealand

New Zealand – Home -1997

Used during the World Cup qualifiers in 1997m the first evidence I can find is against Papua New Guinea on 11/06/97, although it is likely that it was also used in the away game on 31/05/97. It was later used in further home qualifiers aginst Fiji and Australia.

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