East Javanese students find fire football hot event

East Javanese students find fire football hot event

Antariksawan Jusuf, Contributor, Banyuwangi

Football is hot in Java's most eastern region of Banyuwangi.
Not because fans are eagerly waiting the upcoming 2002 FIFA World
Cup, but because the game is played here with a ball that is
literally on fire.

Bare-footed, the mostly elementary students of Muslim boarding
school Hidayatul Muhtadiin of Grogol west of Banyuwangi, play
regular fire football matches on a concrete court normally used
to dry rice.

It is just like the sport of football played anywhere in the
world, with kicking, heading, penalties, a referee, a
commentator, the spectators, only in this version it is held at
night with a burning ball and played for a shorter period of
time.

The ball is made from a coconut, which has been soaked for a
couple of hours in kerosene. During each match the referee's
assistant has to stop play a couple of times in order to pour
more kerosene when the fire fades.

According to the school's owner cum teacher, H. Nursalim,
there is no magic involved in the match.

Among people from other regencies, especially in East Java,
Banyuwangi is identified as a hotbed for magic. In the late
1990s, dozens of alleged black magic practitioners were murdered.
Some of them, however, turned out to be religious teachers,
peasants and shamans, and they became victims of prejudice and
hatred. The perpetrators of the killing spree remain a mystery to
this day.

"What I have told them to do is to perform wudhu before
playing and pray Bismillahirrohmanirrohim (In the name of Allah,
the compassionate and the merciful)," Nursalim said. Wudhu is a
ritual of cleansing performed by every Muslim before daily
worship. Its ritual includes washing five parts of the body: the
face, two hands, the head, two ears and two feet.

"In the act of prostration while we pray, seven parts of our
body touch the earth. So, we decided seven should be the number
of players in a team," Nursalim said.

The idea of fire football was raised in 1986 when the
government launched an nationwide campaign to promote sports.

Nursalim, who is a fan of football legend Diego Maradona, came
to the idea of fire football and fire basketball to make it a bit
different to other sports.

The popularity of the school's fire football team has extended
to other neighboring regencies of Situbondo, Besuki and
Panarukan.

The school's team has often been invited to the regencies to
play at charity events. All of the proceeds are normally used to
build mosques, Nursalim said.

To make the game more interesting, organizers of the charity
matches often claim the school teams come from opposite parts of
Banyuwangi and that they are in competition. And for this
purpose, the school has prepared several colored jerseys. In the
event of playing in other regions, they entertain the spectators
by holding the match on a real football field.

So far, none of the students have been injured. Intensive
training normally takes place in the Islamic month of Sya'ban
before the students end their academic calendar at the school,
which hosts some 100 students, 25 of whom are girls.

"What is most important to us is that the students are having
fun," Nursalim said.