Rohingya youths show zeal for life through football

Hyderabad: Bilal Hussain’s eyes lit up in excitement as he waits on the periphery of the football field and cheers for his son play for the Rohingya Football Club (FC). 52-year-old Hussain is overtaken by nostalgia watching his son play his favorite sport — football, a game that reminds him of his teammates back in Myanmar, the country he left behind.
As the Rohingya refugee crisis continues far away, the refugees are often called national security threats and infiltrators for seeking shelter in India. Yet in their own bid to prove themselves, youths belonging to this ethnic group living in refugee camps located in Balapur, Hyderabad, have formed a football team.
Hussain’s son Zia Ur Rahman is a member of the Rohingya FC, who are participating in the ‘KTR Football Championship 2020’ that commenced on Saturday. The tournament sees 14 teams battling it out at the Sports Coaching Foundation grounds at Masab Tank.  The teams consist of young players from various parts of the city and among these are two teams of Rohingya refugees that stand out the most. Consisting of players between ages 18 to 25, the team is an eclectic coterie of students, daily-wage laborers, construction workers, vegetable sellers, and others who make a living through low-paying jobs.
For the ongoing tournament, from the 50-member Rohingya FC, a smaller team named Quadri FC is formed. The team, supported by siasat.com , has participated in numerous tournaments in the past too.  Mohammed Sadiq (21), a goalkeeper of the Rohingya FC said, “Rohingya refugees are often seen through a particular ideological lens. Football has given us positive exposure and enabled us to tell the world that we are just like everyone else.”