The chief worry for Muhannad Al-Fakeer while travelling from Syria to Mumbai stemmed from weather, unlike a few years ago when the trip was potentially life-threatening.
Muhannad Al-Fakeer nods grimly when asked how his journey to Mumbai was. In recent years, travelling abroad from his homeland, Syria, has been a problem. As a FIFA technical director, he made the latest sojourn to meet his colleagues for a workshop.
This time around though, the reason for his travel worries was different, and much more benign.“Sometimes it’s raining, sometimes it’s snowing,” he says.
“You have to drive to Beirut and then fly down. That drive can be unpredictable now because of the weather.”
A few years ago, with the civil war at its peak, the trip to Lebanon or to any other neighbouring nation was potentially life-threatening. Life in Syria was a daily question mark, as the war-torn Middle Eastern nation had come to a standstill. But football hadn’t.
“At no point did our national League stop,” he says.
“It was only two months long. All matches happened in Damascus and Lattakia because they were the only two safe cities.
There were little to no people watching from the stands because it wasn’t always safe, but the matches did happen.”
