Young Libyan players during a local football league in Tripoli on March 6, 2018. (Xinhua/Hamza Turkia)
TRIPOLI, March 15 (Xinhua) -- The popularity of football, especially loved by many Libyan young men, can be seen in the streets and neighborhoods in the war-torn country.
Adel Mohammed, a young football fan from the capital Tripoli, organized a local football league of young people from different neighborhoods as an effective way to get rid of political pressure and violence.
"A number of young people from Tripoli's Drebi district discussed the idea of making a football league between neighborhoods. There was a quick response and the league was established. The league includes young and adult players, with seven teams of each age group," Mohamed told Xinhua.
He said the small league reflected the enthusiasm of local young people for the world's most popular sport.
"We have been playing it in neighborhoods and streets since childhood. But lately, the effect of the sport has changed, as it takes many youth away from violence, weapons and armed militias," the Libyan young man explained.
"This succeeded in integrating the young people into activities that protect them from useless free time, something the politicians failed to achieve," Mohamed added.
In an ongoing two-week football tournament in the capital, where games are held on a clay court, has drawn a large passionate audience.
Misurata, a city some 200 km east of Tripoli, also finds football a haven away from violence, as the sport is serving as a peacemaker in the city which has been largely affected by armed conflict since the 2011 civil war.
"We consider football in neighborhoods an important means of spreading a culture of peace among the people and making it a way of communication and understanding, so that the national unity can be restored after being weakened by conflicts and wars," Mahmoud Erfeda, a local young football fan, told Xinhua.
According to Erfeda, football has the power to rally the entire people in support of the national team to forget their differences.
"In this sense, we are constantly organizing tournaments in neighborhoods, especially during the past two years, in order to encourage young people to choose the sport they love to make them active in society and to maintain their physical health," he said.
Erfeda, along with a number of other young people, is working on a plan to establish a pan-Libyan football championship for neighborhoods as a way to bring the Libyan people all over the country together.
He said this idea was inspired by a local match two weeks ago, where a young man on the bench was standing on crutches.
"After the match, the young man told me that he was unable to play because of his injury in a mortar explosion a few years ago despite his strong desire," Erfeda lamented.
The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) has imposed a ban on official matches in Libya because of the deteriorating security and instability in the country since 2011.