An Afghan Media Mogul, Pushing Boundaries

By: Graham Bowley | New York Times

At the inaugural championship of the new Afghan premier soccer league in Kabul last October, Saad Mohseni stood on the well-groomed sideline wearing a Western blazer and a toothy smile that said, “Yes, you had better believe it.”

Around him, 4,000 Afghan fans were enjoying a break from the typical grind and violence of the nation’s daily life to swing flags and roar for their newly created teams. And in the rickety stands behind him, a clutch of well-groomed Afghan V.I.P.’s in traditional shalwar kameez clapped politely at Mr. Mohseni’s unlikely creation, a televised soccer final in a poor country still at war and in a location — a sports stadium — that only a decade and a half ago could as likely have been the bloody scene of a Taliban public execution as a soccer championship.