The Alakozai Group of Companies on Monday pledged support to the Afghan Football Federation over the next 15 years.

A memorandum of understanding was signed between the two parties at a press conference where it was stated that Alakozai will sponsor the team to the amount of $850 000 USD every year. This money will go towards improving the national teams and for the purpose of meeting their expenses, said Keramuddin Keram, Chairman of Afghanistan Football Federation.

"We will spend this money on our men and women teams, their air tickets, hotel expenses, food and hosting of teams that will be playing here. This is a long-term contract and if needed, the monthly amount can be changed as well," said Keram.

"Football has an important role in bringing together nations, ethnicities and making national unity stronger. The football achievements of our country has enabled us to support our team members and hopefully they will achieve more in future. We will try to sign a MoU with the Afghanistan Cricket Board in the future as well," says Nooryalai Rahmani, Marketing Manager Alakozai Group of Companies.

Afghanistan football federation has said that with the signing of this MoU, the budget challenges for hosting 2018 world cup qualifiers has been eliminated.