Somali football makes an unlikely comeback In the 1980s, when Somali football was at its most popular, Stadium Mogadishu could hold more than 70,000 people. "It was one of the best stadiums in Africa," says Ahmed Nur Abdulle, vice president of the Somali Football Federation.But for the past two years the stadium has been a military base for Ethiopian forces. Somalia has been racked by a series of civil wars since the last recognised government was overthrown in 1991. The country, snaked around the eastern tip of Africa, is in the midst of a humanitarian catastrophe. More than 10,000 people have been killed in the past two years and at least one million have been forced to flee their homes. Roughly half of the population is in desperate need of food aid.Unsurprisingly, the football league has ground to a halt. Known as Serie A - Somalia was once an Italian colony - it was last active in early 2006.
Yet the federation has refused to give up. It established a training base in neighbouring Djibouti two months before the Cecafa Cup and scouted players from across the Somali diaspora. More than half the squad lives in Mogadishu, but some are based in Canada, the US and London, including Gulad Adan - by day a defender for Hanwell Town in the Spartan South Midlands League, by night a bouncer at the Trocadero in the capital's West End.more..http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/01/somalia-football
Yet the federation has refused to give up. It established a training base in neighbouring Djibouti two months before the Cecafa Cup and scouted players from across the Somali diaspora. More than half the squad lives in Mogadishu, but some are based in Canada, the US and London, including Gulad Adan - by day a defender for Hanwell Town in the Spartan South Midlands League, by night a bouncer at the Trocadero in the capital's West End.more..http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/01/somalia-football
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