ISLAMABAD: Like every year, night football fever is popular in Islamabad this Ramadan also, with young people taking to formal and informal grounds to play as a way to refresh themselves after iftar and engage in a healthy activity until the pre-fast suhoor meal.
One regular player is Mohammad Baqir Ali, a law student from Islamabad’s twin city of Rawalpindi, who has been playing football for the last four years and takes part in Ramadan night games every year.
“We don’t get time in the day, so we play football at night because we observe fast during the day,” Ali told Arab News, wiping sweat off his face during a break.
“As you know football is a physical game, it is difficult to run while fasting. So, all friends get together during night time and this way join the event. [Here] a proper tournament is going on and it offers a substantial winning prize and we are doing our best to win it.”
Mohammad Baqir Ali, who is a law student from Islamabad’s twin city of Rawalpindi and one of the regular football players, talks to Arab News in Pakistan's capital Islamabad on April 9, 2023. (AN Photo)
The tournament has been arranged by Sanawar Khan, a football coach for 20 years, with twelve teams from Islamabad and Rawalpindi playing at the multipurpose ground in Islamabad’s upscale F-6 sector.
“We arranged the Ramadan football tournament to engage young players,” Khan told Arab News as he stood on the pitch with a whistle strung around his neck. “It is a one-day tournament based on a knock-out system.”
Khan, who runs a football academy on the same ground, said the South Asian country has “marvelous” football talent.
“But there is little monetary reward in it,” he lamented. “That’s why our boys are playing county abroad. They don’t play in Pakistan,” he added, as he blew his whistle to signal the start of a new game.
Dozens of spectators had also turned up to watch the tournament and cheer on their favorite teams.
Saqib Mehmood, a football enthusiast who works for a private company in Islamabad, said his club was registered in nearly a dozen such tournaments this Ramadan.
“In Ramadan, mostly there are night tournaments because players can’t play the game in the day,” he told Arab News.
Then pointing at members of his club, he added: “These boys either do jobs or are involved in studies. Whenever they get free time, I have seen them playing football at night instead of getting into any negative activity.”
