Young Libyan men swap violence and politics for football
Print Edition
THE popularity of football in war-torn Libya is evident on the many faces of the nation’s men who take to the streets and play in the neighborhoods of the troubled country.
Adel Mohammed, a young football fan from the Tripoli, organized a local football league of young people from different neighborhoods as an effective way to ease political pressure and violence.
“A number of young people from Tripoli’s Drebi district discussed the idea of making a football league between neighborhoods. There was a quick response and the league was established. The league includes young and adult players, with seven teams of each age group,” Mohamed said.
He added that the small league reflected the enthusiasm of local young people for the world’s most popular game.
“We have been playing it in the neighborhoods and streets since childhood. But lately, the effect of the sport has changed, as it takes many of its youths away from violence, weapons and armed militias,” the young Libyan man explained.
“This succeeded in integrating young people into activities that protect them from useless free time, something the politicians failed to achieve,” Mohamed added.
The ongoing two-week football tournament in the capital, where games are held on a clay court, draws a large passionate audience.
Misurata, a city some 200km east of Tripoli, also finds football a haven away from violence, as the sport serves as a peacemaker in a city, which has been largely affected by armed conflict since the 2011 civil war.
“We consider football in neighborhoods an important means of spreading a culture of peace among people and making it a way of communication and understanding, so that the national unity can be restored after being weakened by conflicts and wars,” Mahmoud Erfeda, a local young football fan said.
According to Erfeda, football has the power to rally the people in support of the national team to forget their differences.
“In this sense, we are constantly organizing tournaments in neighborhoods, especially during the past two years, in order to encourage young people to choose the sport they love to make them active in society and to maintain their physical health,” he said.
Erfeda, along with a number of other young people, is working on a plan to establish a pan-Libyan football championship for neighborhoods as a way to bring together Libyan people from all over the country.
He said this idea was inspired by a local match two weeks ago, where a young man on the bench was standing on crutches.
“After the match, the young man told me that he was unable to play because of his injury in a mortar explosion a few years ago despite his strong desire,” Erfeda lamented.
The International Federation of Association Football has imposed a ban on official matches in Libya because of the deteriorating security and instability in the country since 2011.
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