Ramadan is a time of reflection, togetherness, and faith for Muslims worldwide. It’s also a time when community takes centre stage—whether within families, places of worship, or the sporting world. EHA spoke with Cherif Benkanoun from our Southwest Talent Pathway Regional Academy coaching team to discuss what Ramadan means to him, how he continues to engage with handball and coaching during the month, and how greater understanding can help create a more inclusive sporting community.
More Than Just Fasting
For Cherif, Ramadan is about connection as much as it is about fasting.
“Ramadan is spiritual. It’s religious, but it’s really more spiritual. It’s one of the five pillars of Islam, something that you have to do as Muslims. My comparison to Ramadan is it’s like Christmas for everyone—not just for Christians. It’s about gathering, eating at the same time, having nice food and being happy. That connection with family and community.”
Living in a remote area means he has to plan ahead to keep those traditions alive.
“As a Muslim we’re not all alike, you know, every culture is different for example as an Algerian, I always go to London to get all the Algerian stuff—go to the streets, buy them, bring them home. Because if you live in London, that’d be available in the shops but here I’m remote so there is no one here around me doing Ramadan.”
Sport and Community in Ramadan
Sport is a huge part of Cherif’s life—both as a coach and in his work supporting young people. Ramadan doesn’t change that. Cherif describes his typical day:
“I work with vulnerable young people, so sometimes I will take them to use public transport to get to school and coach them on how to be independent basically. Then, I train myself, and later in the evening, I coach. Yesterday, for example, I started coaching at 5:30 PM and finished at 7:30 PM. Today, I’ll coach from 7:30 to 9:30 PM. It’s all about managing your energy.”
Fasting can sometimes be beneficial to training by clearing the mind and removing the need for water or nutrition.
“You train normally and sometimes you do better while you’re fasting than [if you weren’t]. It’s like you are more focussed when you’re fasting.”
Rather than focusing on hydration and nutrition:
“You’re replacing it by needing to focus on this exercise or that shot, it’s a focussed mind.”
Breaking the Fast: The Heart of the Community
Iftar—the meal that breaks the fast—is one of the most anticipated moments of the day, not just for the food but for the sense of community that comes with it. Cherif describes how his family breaks the fast:
“We usually break the fast with dates. That’s one of the things I get from London. I get the best dates. So dates and buttermilk to give you that rush of sugar. Then we move on to soup, then the main meal, and finally something sweet.”
For Cherif, sharing these moments with family and friends are just as important as the food itself.
“I live in a small village, there’s a little mosque nearby, so we go there to pray at night. And once or twice a month, we go down to London to see my family and have dinner.”
Speaking about being in the West Country as a Muslim, he highlights the importance of celebrating together:
“We’ve got other families that are Muslim here, we have got Syrian families and Pakistani families, they come to me and I cook for them… so you celebrate with all that nice food and you make the time to do it.”
“It’s about family and community. Ramadan is a celebration.”
Breaking Barriers in the Sporting Community
Cherif believes the key to making sport more inclusive is education, simple awareness, and the importance of checking in with Muslim players—without singling them out or adding negative connotations.
“I think education more than anything else [is the most important].”
“I don’t want people to think of it as an obstacle. Especially in our world of sports, especially as a sportsman. You don’t want it to be like, hold on, oh I can’t do this because I’m fasting. No, there are ways to go around it, how can we change the exercise for you to do it but not at 100%.”
“As a sports community how can we understand how that player is functioning and what that player is going through [without checking in]. So you might not expect them to give you 100% but you’ll be shocked sometimes that they’ll give you more than 100%.”
EHA asked, “It’s asking players: how are you feeling today?”
Cherif responded:
“Yeah, as simple as what you just said, how are you feeling today? And being aware you can almost see straight away, they’re not performing well so you need to do something [to support] or they are exceeding.”
The importance of accommodating is key:
“Coaches [needing] to understand that yes, they [Muslim players] are performing, but they’re performing under different conditions.”
Education around fasting and understanding that Ramadan falls at different times each year in relation to the sporting calendar is vital.
“As a sporting community, we know it will come once a year, sometimes in the middle of the season, sometimes at the end of the season, sometimes not even in the season. So we have to look at it and go with it.”
The most important thing, according to Cherif, is to keep the conversation going.
“Don’t be scared, just come and ask the questions and then we’ll educate and work together. No one knows everything that’s the thing.”
Ramadan and Sport: A Time for Connection
At its core, Ramadan is about faith, family, and community. Cherif believes sport has an important role in bringing people together during this time.
“To me it’s all about respect, the whole thing. Being Muslim, non-Muslim, being whatever, it’s respect and living together that’s the most important thing in life.”
With more awareness, understanding, and small adaptations, Ramadan and sport can work together. As more sports communities embrace it, stories like Cherif’s will help shape a more inclusive and educated sporting world.
This year, Ramadan will continue throughout March and is expected to end on the 30th, depending on the sighting of the moon.
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