What is the ruling of Allah regarding playing football and other games?

The Shaykh : A questioner asked recently about an issue that has afflicted most Muslims in all lands of Islam, and I would like to know the ruling of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) in it, which is playing football. It has become a passion for every young man who grows up in a society that has some of what is called today civilization. My answer to that is as follows: Playing with a ball does not differ from any other game that a Muslim engages in; it falls under the generality of the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) . The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) mentioned these games and amusements that people used to play with at that time, and he excluded them from vain amusement. We must be aware here, on the occasion of this hadith, of two matters. The first is that the hadith, as you heard, uses the word "vain" (batil) and not the word "forbidden" (haram).
The second matter is that when we note this difference, we then know that there is also a jurisprudential difference. Since the hadith was reported with the word "vain," it does not mean it is "forbidden," because "vain" is closest in meaning to "idle talk" (laghw), whereas "forbidden" is an explicit ruling regarding the obligation to stay away from it. Once we know that, we can say that any amusement a person engages in at any time and place is idle talk that is vain and has no reward, provided it is safe from sin. Sin may come from the type of game itself, or it may come from what surrounds the type of game being played. Let us give two examples. The matter is as Allah the Exalted said: or do they remember? The two examples are playing with dice and playing chess. Playing with dice is prohibited by explicit text and in itself. It has come authentically from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) that he said: It is known to everyone that the flesh and blood of a pig are ritually impure in their essence, so it is not permissible to play with this type of amusement. This is the first example.
As for the second example, as I mentioned earlier, there is no authentic hadith prohibiting playing chess. Since that is the case, what is its ruling? We cannot say it is forbidden because no text has come regarding it, and we cannot say it is absolutely permissible because it falls under the first hadith, which is the hadith of Jabir ibn 'Abd Allah al-Ansari, the narrator. This hadith of Jabir contains this generality that all games are vain. Therefore, playing chess is vain. This vain status must be looked at in relation to what may surround it of evil that elevates it and places it in the rank of forbidden things, or whether it elevates it to the rank of permissible things. If playing chess, as is the reality today, contains some statues known as the elephant, the horse, and the king—I do not play them, but according to what I read and hear, I mention these things among them—there is no doubt, I hope, that some views contrary to the correct Sunnah have not crept into you, that the forbidden images are only those that harm in morals, and that there is nothing in such idols that harms in creed. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), as they claim, prohibited image-making and possessing it temporarily, from the perspective of blocking the means to harm, before tawhid (the oneness of Allah) became established in the hearts of his Companions. When the doubt was removed from their hearts and tawhid became established in their souls, this legal ruling was negated, which is the strict prohibition of making and possessing images. This is a doubt we have heard often from some who have not specialized in religion. I do not want to lengthen this matter now; it is sufficient for me to mention that image-making in all its types, whether drawn with a pen, a brush, paint, embroidery, or any modern machine today, which are many, as long as there is something that can linguistically be called an image and it is an image, it is not permissible to make it, and consequently it is not permissible to possess it, because all these types fall under the generality of these hadiths mentioned, such as his warning about image-making: and his prohibition of possessing any image, which is his saying: