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Yusef Chippo has a secret.
A few months into his professional football career in Europe, Moroccan midfielder Chippo was looking to prove himself and didn’t want to do anything that could jeopardize his chances of success. This included revealing that he was fasting during Ramadan, a normal practice for billions of Muslims around the world, but in the winter of 1997, Portugal’s F.C. That was not the case in Porto’s locker room.
The team’s two practice sessions, morning and afternoon, were tough. Going from sunrise to sunset without food or water made things even more difficult. After enduring days of dizziness and headaches in silence, Chippo eventually made a full recovery, and the club quickly put together a plan to maintain his energy and health.
But for decades, other Muslim players felt the team was less tolerant, at least publicly. So in a sport where continuous play and lack of substitutes mean little chance of dropping to the bench mid-game, these players have long relied instead on resourcefulness and improvised solutions to break their fasts. I did. Namely, teammates who fake or exaggerate injuries right after sundown. To buy time for my Muslim colleague to hurry up and wait. A few dates and a sweet drink slipped into my hand by the staff at the appointed time. Trainers rushed to treat his knee injury, carrying kits that were strangely filled with bananas.
But in recent years, the world of football, where fasting by Muslim players was once seen as something to be encouraged or criticized, is actively changing its ways. In a change that reflects the prevalence and rising value of Muslim stars in soccer, some of the world’s richest leagues and teams fully embrace Ramadan fasting, with one notable exception. moving in the direction.
This means that in Europe, many Muslim athletes benefit from bespoke nutrition plans before and during their month-long holidays. A practice schedule that can be adapted quickly. They can also break their on-field fast during a game due to league-sanctioned in-game suspensions.
Some of the changes reflect a new embrace of diversity in wealthy competitions like England’s Premier League, whose reach and fan base has long extended beyond the country’s borders. There are also more practical reasons for the change. Muslim players are now an investment worth hundreds of millions of dollars for the world’s elite teams, and Muslim players are becoming increasingly vocal about their demands.
For example, two seasons ago, Liverpool forward Sadio Mane decided to train daily during Ramadan in the morning so that he and other Muslims in the team, such as star striker Mohamed Salah, could participate. I asked the team captain to consult manager Jurgen Klopp about making the change. Approaching the pre-dawn meal. Manager Klopp has fulfilled his duty.
“They’re taking this fight very seriously because they understand that it’s important to me and it’s equally important to them. They need to keep me healthy. “Because there is,” said Mohamed Elneny, an Egyptian midfielder for Arsenal, another top club in the Premier League.
Elneny, 31, is one of three Arsenal players to fast during Ramadan this season. He said teams begin preparing players about two weeks before their first fast and do “literally everything” necessary to keep players at peak performance. This process is repeated the day before Ramadan begins. Other Premier League clubs, and dozens more across Europe, are now doing the same.
The English and Dutch leagues have also introduced rules explicitly allowing so-called Ramadan pauses during matches, and German referees have been given the power to stop play for the same reasons.
However, not all countries are participating in this.
The French Football Federation recently came under fire for banning fasting for players training with federation teams, with guidelines instructing teams and officials not to interrupt play to allow players to break their fast.
French authorities defended the guidelines, saying they were required by the federation’s rules on secularism. However, at least one top player left the national team camp in protest.
Some companies continue to promote inclusion and education. In England, the Premier League will allow clubs with Muslim players to make arrangements with referees for a short break at sunset from 2021. The players’ association, the Professional Footballers’ Association, has also produced a 30-page document that combines a Ramadan primer and a Ramadan primer. Tips on best practices for fasting.
Maheta Molango, the union’s chief executive, said: “Instead of asking Muslims to adapt, it is better to understand the opposite.”
Such knowledge was not always widely available. At Porto in 1997, Chippo’s coach Fernando Santos patiently listened to his player explain why he fasted and helped him reduce his workload. But when Chippo moved to England two years later, he returned to taking matters into his own hands.
There, whenever the game schedule coincided with iftar (the dinner that breaks the fast), Chippo would have his team staff hover along the edge of the field with dates and water bottles, and bolt towards him at the right time. I asked him to go. It was usually early in the game. Latter half.
The first example of an organized suspension of a match in the Premier League occurred three years ago during a match between Crystal Palace and Leicester. Former Crystal Palace doctor Zafar Iqbal said medical staff from both teams consulted the referee about the need for a break before the match. At the appointed time, Palace’s goalkeeper held out for the free kick and conceded the free kick.
“When the ball went out of play, the game was paused and the two players ran to the sideline for drinks and a date,” Iqbal said. “It happened so quickly that no one else in the stadium noticed.”
The elaborate process went largely unnoticed in the moment, but only became apparent the next day when one of the Muslim players involved thanked the goaltender, the league and the team.
Popular former England manager Harry Redknapp said he first met Ramadan in 2000 when he was managing West Ham. He recalled his shock when the team’s star striker, Malian-French Frédéric Kanoutet, told him he would not eat or drink during the day for the rest of this month.
“When it first came, I had no idea,” Mr Redknapp said. “I didn’t know what that actually meant.”
Redknapp later moved to Portsmouth, where the squad included more Muslim players, including Ghanaian Sulley Muntari, known for his tireless running. So the club arranged for snacks and drinks to be provided for each Ramadan match in the evening.
However, Redknapp said the team still lacked nutrition experts to guide them. “I think they ran away once during the game,” he said of one game. “So we gave them some Mars bars.”
Muntari’s fasting would later become a hot topic when he moved to Italy, but Inter Milan manager Jose Mourinho once pulled Muntari out of a match due to a lack of energy. Mourinho told reporters that Muntari “had issues related to Ramadan”, suggesting the holy month “does not come at an ideal time for players to play football matches”. . The coach said his own comments were taken out of context.
At Arsenal, Elneny said he attends every training session during Ramadan and changes what he eats for pre-dawn and evening meals depending on the expected training intensity.
He said he plans to take advantage of the allowance that allows him to pick up his fast for the day of the game if he is selected as a starter. He said he did not want his team-mates to “doubt” his commitment in a competitive league like the Premier League.
While the presence of Muslims in Premier League dressing rooms is now commonplace, the knowledge that team-mates cannot drink even a sip of water during training or fast-paced matches is a major concern for non-Muslim teammates. may confuse. “Their faces change,” Elneny says.
Some people are curious. Egyptian defender Ahmed Elmohammadi, who played for England for more than a decade, said one of his former team-mates, Irishman Paul McShane, also took part in a one-day fast one year.
Elmohamady acknowledged that McShane didn’t last long, but said he was “a pleasure to watch.” “He did it once, but he said it was too difficult to do for 30 days.”
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