Delicious
Digg
Facebook
Twitter
Yahoo!
TechnoratiSomali football fans brave World Cup ban
Africa's first World Cup has been accompanied by violence in Somalia, with reports of insurgents arresting and even killing people for watching the tournament on television over the past week. The group Hizbul Islam has been enforcing a strict interpretation of Sharia law that bans the tournament.
But many Somalis are big football fans, and its national team, the Ocean Stars, routinely compete in the tournament's qualifying matches.
|
The Ocean Stars have not been able to play a match at home in Mogadishu since 1986. Yusuf Ali Nur, a former Ocean Stars captain and now coach of the national under-17 team, told RFI what it's like running a football team in Mogadishu.
"We have two big stadiums and they're near the fighting, so we play in Djibouti," he said. "Djibouti's our home, because in Somalia we have no place to play."
He said the team had been training on a ground near the airport, which is not the official size. Sometimes they encounter fighting between the government and rebels on their way to and from training.
After defeating Kenya in April, the under-17 team will play Egypt in the second round of the African Youth Championship in August.
Comments (1)
stop!!!!!!!!!
Western Medias are always looking for Muslim' s country errors, when will you stop lying on us
React to this article