Headless-Goat Polo is a Sport

Sport is a powerful universal language. There are few things so able to unite and inspire people from all backgrounds across the world. In poorer regions, the rewards for success and the route out of poverty they provide become all the more tantalising.

In Brazil it is football; in America, the NFL or NBA. But for the youth of Afghanistan it is the national sport of Buzkashi – literally 'goat-grabbing' – a form of polo played on horseback with the headless cadaver of a goat.

The game has two main forms. The traditional Tudabarai has few rules and can involve hundreds of riders, with the aim simply for a single rider to pick up the dead goat and emerge clear of the pack.

Qarajai was then introduced in 1953 as a more structured variant involving two teams of around 10 to 12 riders. The goal here is to carry the carcass around a marker at one end of the field and throw it into a scoring circle at the other.

Qarajai was spurned by traditionalists who complained its tennis-like gameplay and ban on anyone joining in the tussle drove the sport away from its roots. Why help a team-mate when you could grab the carcass (and the prize-money) for yourself?

Traditionally, referees in the Kabul tournaments were former military officers capable of handing out prison sentences to riders who consistently broke the rules. It's safe to assume that Lee Catermole will be hoping no such system finds its way to the Premier League any time soon.

(Suffice to say, if you don't want to see any headless goats do not watch this video)

The creation of Buzkashi is, perhaps apocryphally, thought to have been inspired by Ghengis Khan's invasion of Afghanistan in 1219-21, when pillaging Mongols on horseback would sweep up local Afghan livestock at a gallop. It is also believed to be the catalyst for the rather more sedate game of polo we know today – a game synonymous in England with people wealthy enough to own a horse.

Buzkashi in Afghanistan was conventionally financed by wealthy benefactors (ahem, warlords) keen to demonstrate their influence and enhance their status and power base. Nowadays it is commonly sponsored by successful local businessmen who are… keen to demonstrate their influence and enhance their status and power base. They usually provide the riders with a horse and stump up the prize money at competitions.

A cash prize is typically awarded to competitors for scoring a goal, which is tucked away into their tunic before the rider heads back out into the fray. A champion rider (Chapandaz) is generally believed to peak in his 40s and is idolized for his strength and horsemanship.

In 1996 Buzkashi was banned when the Taliban regime came to power in Afghanistan and denounced killing any animal without using its meat as immoral. Yes, a regime that went on to violently degrade its women, malnourish its children and ethnically cleanse sections of its society found the prospect of its citizens continuing to horse around (yeah) with a goat carcass just that bit too much to stomach.

Since the Taliban were ousted in 2001 the sport has flourished again, largely supported by the Afghan government who aim to get Buzkashi into the Olympic Games.

Appreciation of sport may be universal, but an individual country's affiliation to a particular game will largely depend upon their own culture and inherent historical context. In Afghanistan, with its history of upheaval and instability, Buzkashi becomes a metaphor for life. The Vice-President of the 1970s communist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan called Buzkashi, "A manifestation of the spirit of the struggle of our people". American anthropologist G Whitney Azoy points out that in Afghanistan "leaders are men who can seize control by means foul and fair and then fight off their rivals. The Buzkashi rider does the same."

While it is difficult to envisage games of Buzkashi being rolled out onto Clapham Common anytime soon, the sport remains a definitive source of pride and national identity to people in Afghanistan.