The British government is preparing to receive 35 young footballers from the Afghan youth team, threatened in their country by the return to power of the Taliban, as well as their families.

“We are working to finalize the visas for the Afghanistan women’s soccer team and we look forward to welcoming them to the UK shortly.”a government spokesman said Monday.

The players, who narrowly missed the airlift in Kabul in August, fled to Pakistan with their families (a total of 130 people) after the Taliban took power. But they only had a 30-day visa.

Leeds ready to welcome players to their squads

In Afghanistan, they would have been “In an extremely dangerous position, endangering their lives”, because the Taliban prohibit women from playing soccer, according to the ROKiT Foundation, which helped them escape. Footballers and their families must be relocated “In the next two weeks in the UK”, detailed the base in a press release.

The Leeds United club is one of the organizations that has asked the government to grant asylum to these athletes. Its president Andrea Radrizzani offered last month to welcome the players to his youth teams, saying he was ready to “Give these girls a prosperous and peaceful future”.