Ramadan competitions come to an end in Somali Capital

For the first time in more than 5 years, Somali youths in the lawless capital have got the chance to compete in football competitions marking on the Muslim Holly month of Ramadan with the assistance from Somali Football Federation. Islamists in Somalia banned the Ramadan Cups in 2006.

Some of the Ramadan football competitions were held in the Al-shabaab abandoned parts of the capital including the northeastern districts of Mogadishu where the heaviest armed confrontations were taking place for the past two years.

On Friday afternoon the last match of the Ramadan football competitions was held at the open ground in the Siimanka neighborhood in the Wadajir district southwest of the capital Mogadishu.

The hotly-contested final match between Qaalib and Danwadaagaha ended in 1-0 in favor of Qaalib boys. The sole goal was from a penalty kick in the 47^th minute of the second half of the match.

Somali Football federation authorities and lawmakers from the Somali federal parliament were watching Friday’s final match. At the end of the match a small conclusion ceremony was held at the Siimanka village stadium.

Somali Football Federation president Said Mahmoud Nur who addressed at the conclusion ceremony said that the Ramadan competitions were taking place at 43 small stadiums in the capital Mogadishu.

“We are very proud of what we have done last month, because 17,200

{seventeen thousand two hundred} young boys took part in the Ramadan competitions—this is part of our policy to turn the attention of all Somali youths to football” the president said adding that only at the Siimanka stadium 560 players were representing 28 teams who took part in the tournament.

He noted that the Somali Football Federation is committed to increasing youth influence in football in a bid to protect youths from taking up arms, using drugs or falling into other kinds of crimes.

Somali lawmaker Omar Mohamed Mahmoud who addressed at the ceremony for his part said that Somali football Federation was playing a big role in peace building through football for peace activities and that Somali government was fully satisfied with such positive initiatives.

It was in 2006 when Ramadan competitions stopped in Somalia after the Union of Islamic courts who were ruling most of the country at that time banned all sporting activities in the country and in particularly termed football as ‘a satanic act’, but the Somali football Federation was continuing its activities in any way although the Ramdan Cups stopped at all.