The ruling on following and cheering for sports matches
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, does following and cheering for sports matches fall under prohibition, or what is its ruling? Sports matches that adhere to the rulings of the Shari'ah and contain nothing [objectionable].
Answer:
There is nothing wrong with watching those. As for those that contain some of what is wrong or delay the time of prayer, it is not permissible to follow them. The Muslim's time is precious; it is not befitting for him to constantly follow matches and waste his time, especially if he is a student of knowledge seeking knowledge, for he should not waste his time. However, if he watches once and there is no harm in it, it may be permissible once, for example, or in a rare instance. As for persisting in this, it wastes his time without benefit. Yes.
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, does following and cheering for sports matches fall under prohibition, or what is its ruling? Sports matches that adhere to the rulings of the Shari'ah and contain nothing [objectionable].
Answer:
There is nothing wrong with watching those. As for those that contain some of what is wrong or delay the time of prayer, it is not permissible to follow them. The Muslim's time is precious; it is not befitting for him to constantly follow matches and waste his time, especially if he is a student of knowledge seeking knowledge, for he should not waste his time. However, if he watches once and there is no harm in it, it may be permissible once, for example, or in a rare instance. As for persisting in this, it wastes his time without benefit. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [1435 -2802] حكم متابعة المباريات الرياضية وتشجيعها - الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.