My names Ihsan Ahmed and I am a Muslim representative within football. Just like many others, I am someone who has gone through the playing system, the coaching system, the education system... nothing out of the ordinary! However, when I look around me and see my colleagues, my friends, my teachers – rarely do I see people who are Muslim or people who share the same religion as me. I often get comments all the time from my friends and family, asking “Ihsan, don’t you find it uncomfortable sometimes, or just weird that your one of a few Muslims involved in Football?”. The truth is I don’t find it at all uncomfortable or weird; in fact, I’ve never actually looked at it any differently before to anything else. But now putting my thoughts on it, I can see the importance of being involved within the game I love – for representation!
How many Muslim people do we hear say “I tried to make it professional but just didn’t want to” or “I wanted to, but I lost interest”. If we ask ourselves ‘why’ this is being said, it’s probably because there isn’t enough representation in the game to start with. Everyone needs someone to look up to, an anchor to hold in case things are drowning, a mentor to guide them, someone to give them hope that they can also do it as well – this is why I do what I do. If I must be the person that works hard to get to the top of the game, just so it can give other fellow Muslims the incentive and motivation, then so be it. It’s important to represent, to show and demonstrate that football is a game for ‘All’ and not just a particular group.
Someone said to me the other day, “I assume you coach in Football because you want to change the game and represent”. Well actually, I don’t want to change the game but rather embark on its journey and add to its brilliance that it already has. The game doesn’t need changing, but the perception. Everyone has something unique and special about themselves; it’s upon us to join the journey and add your unique set of skills and qualities.
What’s interesting out of everything, is that Islam and football, interlink with each other. There are many principles/values/characteristics used and demonstrated in football that overlap with our teaching and morales in Islam. For example, football teaches the concept of being together as a team and being unified as one. When a team is playing, it doesn’t matter what happens on the pitch; the team must stick together in order to achieve their aims and objectives. Unity is from the profound roots and blessings of Islam. In Islam, when we all agree upon the same principles, and the same values, the net result should be that we should all be together and feel a sense of love and compassion for each other, also values that football encompasses. Football constantly encourages people to stick together and not to fight or argue over small and petty nonsense. Islam in turn also does the same thing where brotherhood and sisterhood is emphasised. It doesn’t matter who says what and who does what but rather set aside differences and work together. When you look at everyone involved in the game, there is one common denominator – everyone loves it. So therefore, unity within football is something which is powerful and should be something we strive towards and at the forefront of everything we do.
Why have I mentioned all of this you might be thinking? Everyone should be able to feel like they can work and be involved in the game in any shape or capacity and shouldn’t feel shunned away because of toxicity or because they don’t feel it’s safe. A saying we have in Islam from our Prophet is that “an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a White has no superiority over a Black nor a Black has any superiority over a White” which goes to show that football can be a game for all and we call for Muslims to come into its environment and add to its speciality and brilliance.