The worst thing about soccer

Even if you are a non-Muslim, you must have heard about The Kaaba, the holiest place in Islam and the location at which millions of Muslims gather every year to perform the Pilgrimage (Hajj), which is the fifth pillar of Islam.

Yet, Prophet Mohammed said that the total destruction of that place is a lesser sin than shedding the blood of one Muslim.

I wonder what the prophet would say if he knew that some people shed each other’s blood, fighting over which soccer team is worthy of winning some tournament.

From the disaster of the Heysel Stadium in 1985 that left 39 people dead, to the most recent clash in the Mexican league that left 26 people injured, soccer fanaticism is and has always been one of the worst, and most insane things in all of sports.

Allah said in the Quran {O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you}.

If practicing sports is good for one’s health, which is a thing that Islam encourages, then what is the benefit of being a fan? A follower of its news and a viewer of its tournaments? It is, if anything, the fact that it brings people together, and introduces peoples and cultures to each other. I am sure when Allah revealed the previous words to the prophet Mohammed, they didn’t mean that “you may know one another so you would get into fights and brawls”.

I am also sure that these words didn’t mean “you may know one another so you hate and antagonise one another over who is better”

Getting to know each other is the Islamic way of promoting peace among different societies. If being a fan of soccer takes you away from that goal, then it’s good for nothing.