French Ligue 1 : A manager has dismissed a Muslim player from his team because he refuses to stop fasting on match days

Player Dismissed From Team over Ramadan Fasting : Nantes manager Antoine Kombouaré has decided not to retain Algerian footballer Jaouen Hadjam in his match-day squad to face Reims in a Ligue 1 match on Sunday afternoon. 

The reason? Because Hadjam , 20 years old , has refused to break his Ramadan fasting during match-days. Kombouaré has asked his Muslim players not to fast during match-days.

Hadjam believes he can still fast and perform for Nantes but Antoine Kombouaré does not deviate from his principle of no fasting during matches.

According to RMC Sport, this is the reason why Jaouen Hadjam is not in the Canaries group this Sunday to play against Reims during Week 29.

Antoine Kombouaré explained his position on Ramadan on Friday at a press conference:

“I met them (Muslim players) We discussed. We work so that it goes well and that is often the case. There is the desire that the weekend, the players are at the top to make the team win.”

Hadjam has already played while fasting this season.

Recruited this winter from Paris FC, Jaouen Hadjam has already played during Ramadan this season. It was during the match-day four qualifying match of the 2023 AFCON between Algeria and Niger (1-0 victory for the Fennecs).

In that match , all the Algerian players ended their fast twenty minutes before the end of the game.

It should be noted that this is not the first time that Antoine Kombouaré has applied this rule.

When he was at PSG, he showed the same firmness.

Kalifa Coulibaly, former FC Nantes striker and currently free of any contract, knew Kombouaré at Paris Saint-Germain.

In an interview with Ouest-France, he spoke about his situation during Ramadan:

“I experienced the same situation. I try to fast all week. The coach manages us differently during the week. The day of the game, you can’t do it because it takes too much effort.”

As a reminder, this week, the French Football Federation published a press release to prohibit referees from temporarily stopping games in order for fasting players to break their fast.