AFC - RAMADAN is a special time of the year for Muslims. In Iran, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar offers more than worship and fasting. It is a festival of late-night football.

Late kick-offs are common in West Asia during Ramadan because of dawn-to-dusk fasting, one of the five pillars of Islam.

But Iranians have taken night matches to the extreme, whether it is at national or street level.

A Ramadan night-football sub-culture has unwittingly emerged in Iran. Recently introduced 10.30pm kick-off games go beyond midnight, stadiums heave on week nights with tens of thousands of fans, and rural towns compete for their own “Jam-e-Ramezan”, or Ramadan Cup, into the early hours.

At the heart of the pitch-side revelry is the Iran Pro League, which has embraced the country’s nocturnal need for football wholeheartedly.

Late Night Show

Recently, Esteghlal’s match against Saipa finished well past midnight – the first time in Iran history that a match spanned two days in front of 80,000 sleepless fans.

For Brazilian midfielder Fabio Daniel Januario, who scored the goal that clinched the title for Esteghlal last season, it was an unusual experience.

“We were playing at a time when we should have been in bed,” he told the-AFC.com. “After a normal game, we are in bed by 11pm at the latest. But this time, we started at 10.30pm.

“This is what we have to accept and follow,” added Januario, one of the most popular foreign players in Iran. “Every part of the world has it own specialty. I am not Muslim but I can understand the culture here. I have respect to the people and fans and try to give 100 per cent under any conditions.”

There were fears that later kick-offs would irk Iran’s easily annoyed football fans. Instead, the country’s fanatical supporters are turning out in their thousands.

Not only are the stadiums packed, but families gather around the television set to watch the action from the comfort of their own homes.

Fans flock

League newcomers Tracktorsazi recently hosted Esteghlal in the western city of Tabriz and 80,000 turned up. In the capital Tehran, 65,000 watched Piroozi play Shahin at the Azadi. And these were weeknight matches.

Alireza Alipour is a clergyman who works with Iran Pro League and sometimes advises of ethical matters. He said the rescheduling of matches well into the night is for the benefit of players, coaches and fans who fast, citing 20 per cent rise in attendances.

“It is about harmonising football with Ramadan,” he told the-AFC.com. “We want to ease the conditions for those are fasting among the football family.

“We start matches long after the breaking-fast time so people can come to the stadium in good time and enjoy the games. The results are very interesting.”

Small-town games

One might think that once the final whistle blows as hour-hand passes 12, Iran’s football party would finally recede into the night. But in towns and small cities of Iran, this is not the case.

Here, small-scale football matches, played on asphalt surfaces, continue until dawn.

These communities would have devised their own Ramadan Cup tournament, some competitions attracting big clubs from the area boasting their regional stars.

The Ramadan Cup in Gisha, an area of Tehran, once featured Iran’s goal-scoring icons Ali Daei and Ali Karimi.

Iran football folkore has it that the rivalry between these legends is rooted in this particular first-ever confrontation between the two players. The story goes that rising Karimi tried to run circles around the established Daei and the pair faced up to each other.

Missing out

Indeed, the spirit of football reaches deep into the Ramadan culture of Iran. Those who spend the holy month abroad, though, lose out big-time.

Iran international Vahid Hashemian plays in Germany for Bochum. The former Bayern Munich player said Ramadan hold little significance in Europe.

“Football in Europe during Ramadan is different from what you see in Iran or some other Middle East countries,” he told the-AFC.com.

“There are two training sessions a day and matches are sometimes held before break-fast time.”

Meanwhile, the festivities continue back home, though only a handful of days remain before Eid-ul-Fitr marks the end of Ramadan and the return of old football routines to Iran’s stadiums, cafes and streets.

But a new tradition has been born and football fans across the country can look forward to another month of night-time football mayhem when Ramadan comes calling again in 12 months time.

Shahin Rahmani

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