An idea to help people who might not otherwise feel able to play during Ramadan is gathering momentum in Birmingham

Just after 10pm on a warm Friday evening Obayed Hussain stands outside the Aston Villa academy building, the North Stand of Villa Park looming behind him. He is wearing a white jubbah, the traditional robe worn by Muslim men. Just before going inside he removes it to reveal a Birmingham FA tracksuit underneath.

A bit more than an hour later the first of around 100 or so people, mostly young men, arrive to play and watch football, which they will do until around 2am. It is not the most obvious time for recreational sport but this is the Ramadan Midnight League. Conceived by Obayed and executed with the help of Villa and the local and national FAs, this is an initiative designed to help those who might not otherwise feel able to play during their Ramadan fast.

Transfer window 2018 – every summer deal from Europe's top five leagues Read more

This is the second year of the seven-a-side league but it has been percolating in Obayed’s head for a while. “When I left school I wanted to be a footballer,” he says. “I wasn’t the best but I thought I could become a semi-pro. But every time pre-season came around, it usually fell during Ramadan, so while the others were training, I couldn’t. I found it difficult to go through everything you have to while fasting.”

Laying on organised football between sundown and sunrise – or, more practically, after iftar and before suhoor, the two meals fasting Muslims are permitted to eat – is such a brilliantly simple idea it is surprising it is not more widespread. But perhaps it took someone such as Obayed, with his faith (when not wrangling amateur footballers, he is an imam), passion for the game and capacity for organisation to get it started.

During Ramadan gyms and five-a-side companies such as Powerleague and Goals report significant drop-offs in participation from the Muslim community. Not just that but Obayed and the local FA found that a number of 11-a-side teams from largely Muslim communities would fold because they were unable to fulfil fixtures when Ramadan fell during the season. It is hardly surprising that many might not have the energy to charge around a football pitch.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Villa provide the indoor pitches free of charge, plus a couple of staff to help Obayed run things. Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi/The Guardian

Obayed initially wanted to call it simply the Midnight League, as the purpose was to be inclusive for all and, while the impetus behind it is of course Ramadan, plenty of non-Muslims are in attendance. He gives an example of a non-Muslim man who moved to Birmingham from London, leaving behind some fairly serious-sounding problems, and was greatly helped by getting involved with a team of largely Muslim players. Without the RML he would have been left for a month.

“Although it’s called the Ramadan league, you can see people from lots of different backgrounds here,” says Kiyam Hussain, manager of Real Aston, who won the league last year. “It’s a really good opportunity for communities to get together. It’s only for a couple of hours a week but it gives people a lot of joy for those hours.”

Real Aston have now expanded to four 11-a-side teams. “It gave us an incentive,” says Kiyam. “After we won it, we thought we should compete at 11-a-side and we’ve dominated – we won four cups.

“Without this we wouldn’t be playing at all. It’s once a week, it gives us an incentive to stay fit during Ramadan. I don’t know what they’d be doing on a Friday night if they weren’t playing football.”

Therein lies another of Obayed’s aims. “When a young person is fasting, at 2.30am they’ll have a pre-dawn meal, and that’s the last time they can eat until 9pm,” says Obayed. “Then they’ll break their fast, then 45 minutes later they’ll go to prayers, which last about 90 minutes.

“From that period of, say, 11.30pm to around 2.45am the majority of young people won’t go home. They’ll loiter around outside the mosque, outside takeaways, and just be a nuisance. We’re saying: ‘Come play football, stay fit, integrate with other social groups,’ and they’re off the streets, playing football at a prestigious venue.”

Villa provide the indoor pitches free of charge, plus a couple of staff to help run things. They do everything from making sure there is bottled water for everyone, to solving the problem of broken light bulbs, to refereeing games.

Two games play simultaneously, tackles flying and shots crashing into walls and nets. The standard is pretty good; one player is supposedly being scouted by a Championship club and two professionals – local boys Easah Suliman, the young Villa defender who has captained England Under‑19s, and Adil Nabi, who played for Peterborough last season – are in attendance, part in a couple of games. “It’s all just positive,” says Nabi.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Spectators and players watch the action. Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi/The Guardian

The national and regional FAs were in attendance, too, and from them the aim is to take this further; a smaller but similar tournament took place in Bedfordshire recently, while plans for leagues in London and Manchester are in the pipeline. “We’re looking at some inter-faith leagues, looking at expanding the Ramadan league,” says Kevin Shoemake, the CEO of Birmingham County FA. “We’ve got to be more flexible.”

Kevin Coleman, the FA’s equality manager, says: “The needs of every county are different. In Cornwall a Ramadan league might not be as needed as London or Manchester. But it is about empowering county FAs so they can be inclusive.”

The broader idea, Obayed says, is to promote inclusion, to challenge “negative stereotypes we see in the media about Muslims not integrating with society”. He adds: “I thought it would be a great opportunity to say we as Muslims are just as interested in football as anyone else in England. We’re playing at midnight; football means that much to us. It’s the love of the sport, wanting to be the next Harry Kane or Dele Alli.”

Or indeed Mo Salah. “Explaining to people what Salah has done …” Obayed tails off a little. “He’s not telling people to become Muslim, or that extremist organisations are wrong; he’s just playing football. But that’s having a huge impact on Muslims and non-Muslims. From a Muslim perspective it’s a sense of pride that everything you see in the media that’s negative isn’t always the case.”

It is now 2am and the games are finished. The players gather in a function room for their pre-sunrise meal, food laid on for them – grilled chicken with steamed vegetables and rice this time. “Ramadan is supposed to be a struggle,” says Obayed. “As long as you’re not harming your body, you’re supposed to carry on with your day-to-day stuff. But, if we can help people out, then that’s great.”