How football reconciled with Ramadan

Europe’s major leagues, clubs, coaches and referees are now getting used to the difficult Muslim month of Ramadan, which for this year ended this week. But now it is becoming known the various tricks used by those who used to play in professional clubs and wanted not to eat or drink every day for a month, from sunrise to sunset.

Countless players in European countries either hid their fasting in order not to lose their place in the starting line-up or pretended to be sick or injured while their performance fell below normal levels. But the funniest thing was how they tried to feed secretly during matches, which continued even after sunset.

Often there was some collusion with a teammate to feign injury so that the game would be stopped and the devout Muslim would run to the bench for water and a quick high-energy snack such as dates or bananas. Sometimes there was an agreement with a member of the technical team on the bench, who hurriedly gave dates or juice in a can to the hand of a Muslim football player on the touchline, during the game, and sometimes a doctor and a physiotherapist entered the field of play for an injured person, carrying with them … bunches of bananas.

Now things have changed, after all, so many Muslim first-line players had to be listened to by the clubs, who have invested millions in them. Now the nutritionists and trainers of the big clubs take care, at least two weeks before this difficult fasting begins, for the proper program of the Muslim footballers and adjust the requirements during Ramadan so that there is a golden ratio between fasting and performance on the field.

In England, Germany and the Netherlands there are now breaks for a quick snack after the sun goes down, but this is banned in France under pro-secular legislation. For this reason, Mahamadou Diawara left the French national youth team in March.

Source: Daily