Lyon midfielder Mahamadou Diawara left the French U19 crew and returned to his membership on Thursday due to the French federation’s new rule banning Muslim gamers from fasting through the holy month of Ramadan, per a report from ESPN. Diawara had featured commonly for the French as they tried to qualify for this summer time’s U19 Euros, although he left earlier than his crew’s 2-0 win in opposition to Belgium on Wednesday.
That is the primary worldwide break during which French gamers observing Ramadan, from the U16s by means of to the senior crew, will likely be topic to new anti-fasting guidelines from the FFF. French paper Le Figaro interviewed federation president Philippe Diallo on Wednesday, and Diallo tried to defend the rule on the grounds that it upholds a “precept of neutrality” and “ensures that faith doesn’t intervene with an athlete.” What does that imply in observe? Muslim gamers are banned from fasting, and in a complicated little bit of syntax from ESPN, “should make up for the fasting days they miss.”
That is probably the most institutionalized fasting ban the FFF has put in place on the worldwide degree, although it is not the primary time the federation has focused France’s Muslim gamers. Final 12 months, the FFF enacted a brand new rule banning match breaks for gamers to interrupt their fasts at sundown. When a much less strict model of the brand new rule was floated final 12 months, French youth groups reportedly threatened to go on strike. One of many gamers concerned in that labor motion, Amine Gouiri, ditched the FFF to characterize Morocco on the worldwide degree.
“Some gamers usually are not proud of this choice,” an agent representing a handful of French gamers instructed ESPN. “They consider that their faith shouldn’t be revered and that they aren’t revered both. Some do not need to trigger a fuss however Mahamadou was not proud of it so he left.”
