Ramadan Project
Leicestershire and rutland county fa
Video Production
2025
About
Faith in the Game: How Muslim Players Cope During Ramadan was a storytelling project exploring how Muslim footballers balance their faith with the physical demands of football during the holy month of Ramadan.
The project focused on Community Football Academy (CFA), a Leicester based club known for its strong community values and inclusive environment. Through interviews with players, coaching staff and the club chair, the project explored how Ramadan affects training schedules, match preparation and daily routines while fasting.
Production Approach
The video adopted a documentary style approach to capture authentic voices from within the club. I interviewed players, coaching staff and the club chair to understand their experiences of balancing football with the commitments of Ramadan.
During filming, I was given behind the scenes access inside the dressing room, where the video captured players praying together before kick off, highlighting how faith forms part of the club’s matchday routine.
To bring the story to life visually, I also attended one of CFA’s matches to capture B-roll footage from the sidelines, including warm ups, match action and interactions between players and coaches. This combination of interviews and matchday footage helped create a powerful narrative showing how faith and football coexist within grassroots football.
Content and Creative
The project combined video storytelling with written content to maximise reach and engagement across multiple platforms. The video feature was supported by a website article that explored the experiences of Muslim players at Community Football Academy during Ramadan, providing additional context and key quotes from the interviews.
To extend the reach of the content on social media, the video was repurposed into a vertical 9:16 format for Instagram Reels. This adaptation ensured the story was optimised for mobile viewing and short form video consumption, helping the content reach wider audiences while maintaining the authenticity and key messages of the original feature.
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- Interviewing CFA Chair
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- Filming b-roll footage of the game
impact
The project helped inform, educate and inspire audiences by providing insight into how Muslim footballers balance faith and football during Ramadan. By sharing authentic voices from within the grassroots game, the content helped raise awareness and promote greater understanding of religious practices within football.
Across Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, the video gained over 8,000 views and generated positive engagement from viewers, with supportive comments recognising the importance of highlighting diversity and inclusivity within the game.
Related work
Football Council Recruitment Campaign
Football Camp Promo Video
Rewind Social Media Campaign
Coach Spotlight Campaign
Young Volunteers Event
