Not So Fast: Some Muslim Soccer Players Dealing With ‘Ramadan Bans’
Muslim athletes face a unique challenge when Ramadan coincides with their training and competition schedules. Throughout the month-long period, practicing Muslims fast from dawn until sunset, abstaining from both food and drink.
For athletes, this can be particularly demanding as they need to maintain their energy levels and performance during training sessions and matches. For Muslim soccer players around who play at all levels, Ramadan means having to adjust training regimens, ensuring they stay hydrated and altering schedules around meals.
Not all pro leagues and soccer federations have been helpful throughout this process. The French Football Federation, which oversees soccer across the European country, sparked controversy this past week after it banned Muslim players from fasting while at the national team’s training center during Ramadan.
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While France has traditionally been a Christian nation, the country has long maintained its strict secularism — a legal principle known as laïcité — which continues to foment tensions in French society and new immigrants from Africa and the Middle East. As a result, midfielder Mahamadou Diawara left France’s Under-19 camp squad after learning of the ban.
The policy states that team meetings, group meals and training sessions for the French senior and youth will not be modified as a result of any player’s religion, including Ramadan, which ends on April 10.
FFF President Philippe Diallo told the French newspaper Le Figaro on March 20 that he had put in place new rules regarding players fasting for Ramadan while on France duty, arguing that a “principle of neutrality” is written into the organization's founding statutes and that the measures “ensure that religion does not interfere with an athlete.”
“Some players are not happy with this decision,” an agent representing a number of players told ESPN. “They believe that their religion is not respected and that they are not respected either. Some don't want to cause a fuss but Mahamadou was not happy with it so he left.”
This comes nearly a year after France’s top administrative court ruled against a group of Muslim female soccer players in their case against the FFF, upholding a ban on hijabs during games.
The Council of State ruled in favor of secularism rather than religious freedom, saying “the ban enacted by the FFF is suitable and proportionate. Sports federations, in charge of proper functioning of the public service whose management is entrusted to them, may impose on their players an obligation of outfit neutrality during competitions.”
Soccer leagues generally respect players’ religious observances and accommodate fasting during Ramadan. This can include allowing players to break their fast and pray during appropriate times, even during training sessions or matches.
Teams may also provide medical support to fasting players to monitor their health and ensure they are not overexerting themselves during fasting hours. This can include regular check-ups and consultations with team doctors.
In the United States, Major League Soccer — the country’s top pro league — instituted a policy last year that allows for a pause in play during games played throughout Ramadan for observing players and match officials to break their daily fasts.
“Several players across MLS will benefit from the pause in play as they observe the month of fasting as followers of the faith or in solidarity with their teammates and friends,” the league recently reiterated on its website. “On and off the field, club nutritionists and dietitians work with players and technical staff, as fasting prohibits food and drink, including water.”
Some MLS stars observing Ramadan include Nashville SC striker Hany Mukhtar and Vancouver Whitecaps FC’s Levonte Johnson, who is not Muslim but began participating in Ramadan with his Muslim friends while in school.
Mohamed Farsi, who plays with the Columbus Crew SC, is a Canadian-born defender of Algerian descent who is also Muslim.
“OK, it’s happening for real,” Farsi recalled thinking when the MLS was first put into place last season. “(The referee) blew the whistle and stopped the game and I’m eating right now. … It was very appreciated and very respectful, so I thank everyone for that.”
Farsi said he is appreciative of the league’s efforts to promote religious diversity and allow him to practice his faith during the season.
“To see people making these initiatives to let us feel that we are at home and we are accepted,” he said, “whatever religion, wherever you are from, that’s beautiful.”
Clemente Lisi is the executive editor of Religion Unplugged. He previously served as deputy head of news at the New York Daily News and a longtime reporter at The New York Post. Follow him on X @ClementeLisi.