Cologne's defender Youssef Mohamad from Lebanon is congratulated on scoring by his teammate midfielder Roda Antar from Lebanon during the German first division Bundesliga football match 1. FC Cologne vs Schalke 04 in the western German city of Cologne on September 26, 2008. Photo by: AFP PHOTO DDP / JUERGEN SCHWARZ GERMANY OUT

Ramadan is the ninth month of the lunar calendar adopted by Islam. According to the Muslim religion, the Prophet Muhammad had a vision from the angel Gabriel during this month in the year 610 (on the 27th day). The latter announced to Muhammad that God had chosen him as his Messenger among people. Therefore, Ramadan, which is one of the five pillars of Islam, is a sacred month during which Allah started to reveal his beliefs to Muhammad. During these thirty days, millions of believers throughout the world deprive themselves from eating and drinking, from sunrise to sunset.

This sacred month has put Muslim sportsmen in Lebanon in a harsh situation, as it started in September, few weeks before the resumption of the football and basketball seasons (respectively on October 11 and November 1st). The Lebanese clubs, which were in full preparations during this period, were due to play many games and participate in numerous friendly tournaments this month: a physical effort which could be a source of risk for athletes during fasting. Therefore, sportsmen in Lebanon wondered a lot: were they able to continue their physical activities during Ramadan?

“We used to train after the Iftar (breaking the fast every night during Ramadan ed)”, said Ghaleb Reda, a Lebanese international basketball player from Tebnine. “However, it is true that training or playing a game without eating or drinking, force the sportsmen to use the energy already stocked in their bodies and lead to a lot of exhaustion.

After around 14 hours of deprivation, fasting complicates the task of the organisms and, therefore, heavies the burden on the performance of Muslim sportsmen. According to the Lebanese technician in the Beirut Nejmeh team, Emil Rustom, the athletes should combine deprivation and sports during Ramadan.

“Players should have a perfect knowledge of themselves in a way that their performance does not decrease much during the month of Ramadan”, he added. As for the new coach of Anibal Zahle basketball team, Rizkallah Zaloum, who lead the Sagesse Club during the Lebanese Basket Summer League, this month is “a delicate period of the year: as a coach, I recommended that our trainings take place after the Iftar. And this is what we did. Even when we had to play a game, we used to play at night. However, it is true that the players couldn’t show their whole talent, mainly because of weariness”.