Salam alaykum! This is our weekly news recap. If you have a story or athlete you’d like to pitch for it, email us at TheAthleticUmmah@gmail.com.
The Headlines
Palestinian Football Association requests FIFA sanction Israeli teams: Palestine’s Football Association (PFA) has asked FIFA to sanction Israeli teams over the atrocities being committed in Gaza. In a statement released on Tuesday, the PFA said “the loss of innocent lives, including no less than 99 footballers” and the “destruction of residential units… are clear violations of international laws,” and asked for its proposal to be on the agenda at FIFA’s upcoming congress in May. “The Israeli Football Association is complicit in the violations of the Israeli government against Palestinian football, as it provides moral support for the occupation government’s actions and justifies its violations,” the proposal added. Nearly 32,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by Israel since the beginning of Israel’s military assault in October 2023.
Somalia to start national women’s football team: Ali Abdi Mohamed, president of the Somali Football Federation (SFF), has announced that Somalia will have a national women’s football team, as reported by the Somalia Stars Instagram account. “We are starting a women’s team. Our plan is to begin playing women’s football,” he’s reported to have said. Football is the most popular sport for women in Somalia and there are a few teams for women to play on, including Golden Girls FC. But despite the SFF becoming a FIFA member in 1962, they’ve never had a national women’s team.
Formula 1 exhibition to make North American debut in Toronto: A new Formula 1 (F1) exhibition is coming to Toronto, Canada, this spring, giving racing fans a chance to get up-close and personal with the wildly popular sport. The experience will make its North American debut in the Canadian city on May 3. It will feature iconic Formula 1 cars and archival video material. It will also give attendees a chance to try their hand at driving an F1 car through state-of-the-art simulators using official F1 gaming equipment.
What You Might’ve Missed
If you were to list some popular sports by the size of their international audiences and player pools, ice hockey would probably fall somewhere in the lower third of the list.
Although the sport is incredibly popular in Canada, Russia, Scandinavia and pockets of the United States, the lack of suitable ice rinks in most countries and the incredibly high cost of entry means the sport isn’t really played outside of upper North America and parts of Europe.
That doesn’t mean there haven’t been efforts to promote hockey in other parts of the world. In 2018, Canadian coffeehouse Tim Hortons released a documentary about Kenya’s only hockey team and flew them to Canada to play in their first ever game against an opponent — with help from ice hockey stars Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon. And in April, Egypt will debut their first ever women’s ice hockey team in a competition in the United States.
One group organizing ice hockey outside of the usual countries is the Friendship League. Founded in March 2016, the Friendship League tries to use the uniting power of sports like ice hockey to foster cross-cultural engagement and connections between otherwise distant communities.
“Our team identifies sports organizations in unusual destinations that face unique barriers to growth in their communities due to a variety of factors, including a lack of equipment, opponents and expertise,” their website reads.
“We then work together with these communities to organize an exchange with international sports enthusiasts … and develop a plan to support the sport’s growth locally.”
Although they’ve organized other sports gatherings in the past, most of the Friendship League’s work appears to involve ice hockey in some way. Previously, they’ve organized ice hockey experiences in Kenya, Turkmenistan, Egypt, Ecuador and even North Korea — countries the average sports fan probably doesn’t associate with ice hockey.
This week, the Friendship League was in Japan, where they played games against the Osaka Canadians and the Tokyo Canadians, as well as trained with the Tohoku Freeblades, a professional Japanese club.
The Friendship League’s team featured several African ice hockey players — including players representing Muslim-majority nations Egypt, Algeria and Morocco.
In their first game against Osaka, the team — dubbed “Team Africa” — was victorious thanks to two assists by Faith Sihoho, who was decked in Kenya’s official ice hockey jersey.
Outside of the rink, the team also attended a sumo match and took in the scenery and lifestyle experiences in Japan, which is home to about 227,000 Muslims.
As a lifelong ice hockey fan, I love this story! In Canada, ice hockey is such a white male-dominated sport that it’s sometimes difficult to understand its potential as a tool for diversity and inclusion. So to see ice hockey being used as a vehicle for cultural exchange is really interesting and powerful in a way.
Props to everyone involved in the organization of and participation in this experience. I look forward to seeing what the Friendship League has in store in the future.
Muslim Athlete of the Week
How many of us would unequivocally pick Islam when faced with a choice between our religion and our career?
That’s the kind of question the French Football Federation (FFF) forced some of its youth national team players to answer this week when it banned them all from fasting for Ramadan during national team camps — a period spanning just over a week or so.
As if insisting referees refuse to pause games to allow fasting players to break their fast wasn’t enough, the FFF now feels like they can police when youth players get to fast. The new FFF rules state that players called up by French national teams cannot fast during the period of Ramadan, instead insisting that players follow the usual rhythm of the teams’ organizations and operations.
ESPN reports that every French national team head coach, from U-16 boss Lionel Rouxel to senior head coach Didier Deschamps, told their players the new rules at the start of the international break.
Philippe Diallo, president of the FFF, tried to defend the decision in an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro. Diallo said a “principle of neutrality” is written into the FFF’s founding statutes, and these measures “ensure that religion does not interfere with an athlete.”
Diallo doesn’t seem to understand the definition of “neutrality,” which is not picking one side over another. In this case, being neutral would’ve been leaving each player to their own will — whether they want to fast or not, the FFF wouldn’t interfere. But by forcing Muslim players to break their fast or face consequences if they don’t, the FFF is planting their flag firmly in the anti-fasting camp and interfering with the athletes more personally than Ramadan would’ve.
Unsurprisingly, Diallo’s poor explanation has not been kindly received by French youth players. According to ESPN, an unnamed agent representing several French youth and senior players said some of his clients are “not happy with this decision.”
“They believe that their religion is not respected and that they are not respected either,” he said.
Although the agent said that some of the Muslim players “don’t want to cause a fuss,” we want to highlight one player who refused to put his career in front of his religion: Mahamadou Diawara.
The 19-year-old midfielder has risen through the ranks as of late. After five seasons in PSG’s youth academy, Diawara joined Olympique Lyonnais in 2023. Initially a reserve player, Diawara made his debut for the historic French club this season, and has made 10 Ligue 1 appearances in total.
His performances had earned him call-ups to France’s U-19 team in 2023, and he was part of the squad set to compete in the Under-19 EURO elite tour this month. But when French players were told they’d be barred from fasting during the national team camp, Diawara — a Muslim of Malian descent — refused to comply. As a result, he was sent back to Lyon and replaced with Dehmaine Tabibou Assoumani.
According to ESPN, the FFF confirmed that Diawara had returned to his club — though it seems the FFF has refused to comment further on the story.
Although Diawara hasn’t publicly commented on the situation, the story has ignited a wave of support behind the young midfielder. His most recent post on Instagram has nearly 17,000 likes (for context, his other posts average between 3,000 and 6,000 likes); and its comments are full of users sending their appreciation and respect.
“You’re doing the right thing. Keep going and Ramadan kareem,” one comment read.
“The whole Islamic nation is with you. We are proud of you,” said another commenter, in French.
Diawara’s decision has also sparked a wider conversation about how Muslim footballers are treated in France. Although some clubs like Lyon, PSG and Olympique Marseille have provided support for fasting players (or, at least, don’t interfere in fasting players’ lives), other French clubs have reportedly followed the FFF’s suit and banned fasting for their players.
The situation has also revealed an irony in French football: that the FFF would be so anti-Ramadan when their national teams — both the men’s and women’s teams — have relied and still rely on the performances of Muslim players and players from Muslim-majority nations to carry them to glory. But that’s a conversation for another piece, insha Allah.
For now, I want to send my appreciation to Diawara. At 19, he stood up for his religious values in a way that many of us two, three and four times his age may never do. For that reason, he’s The Athletic Ummah’s Muslim Athlete of the Week.
Headline image credit: Jeff Pachoud/Getty Images