Meet The British Army PTI Coaching Female Afghan Footballers

Physical Training Instructor (PTI) and British Army Football Women Ambassador Sergeant 'Kempy' Kemp is currently on a nine-month deployment to Afghanistan with a twist.

Kempy dedicates some of her time to coaching local Kabul female footballers who bravely play the game despite opposition from many who believe women shouldn't play the sport.

"We got a couple of girls from each team within Kabul, so it's quite a lot of female football teams in Kabul, so they picked their best couple of players from each team."

When Afghanistan was under Taliban control women were strictly forbidden from playing any type of sport and the Ghazi Stadium in Kabul was used to stage public executions.

Now it is the home of the Afghanistan women's national football team.

Sgt Kemp is currently on a nine-month deployment to Afghanistan and is based at Camp Qargha at the Afghan National Army Officer Academy (ANAOA) mentoring two potential Physical Training Instructors (PTIs) and taking the physical training for the Officer Cadets.

"I'm teaching them the benefits of proper warm-ups, cooldowns and all different types of PT, flexibility.

"We do battle PT, basically like the same PT we do at home really."

Being the Army Women's Football Ambassador, Sgt Kemp decided she wanted to carry on the role when she got to Afghanistan.

"I came out here in July and to be honest I absolutely love it out here.

"It's probably the best job I've had throughout my Army career, it's very rewarding."

She contacted Chelsea Women's Football Club, having been involved with them before, and the club donated more than £4,000 of kit to take to Afghanistan.

This included training kit and boots and was all donated to local female football teams in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Once it arrived in Kabul, Sgt Kemp donated the kit to Afghan female football players.

As well as donating the training kit, Sgt Kemp organised a coaching session for some of the female Afghan football players from the teams in Kabul. The training session was held at the British Embassy, Kabul.

The best two players from each of the female teams around Kabul were invited to the training sessions which consisted of skills and drills during the morning and then in the afternoon they enjoyed a match.

The Afghan footballers thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to have the coaching session as it was an opportunity for many of the players to get to know each other.

With a good link with the Afghan Football Association now, the plan is to develop more sessions, not only with the women's team but the under 16's male, under 18's male and the men's team which could see them in England kit which has now been donated.