Figure 1.--Perhaps no activity is more popular with school age Tajik boys as football. The footballs come out as soon as the boys get home from school, often before the boys change out of their school uniforms. Image courtesy of the William Fergusson collection.

We know very little about sporys in Tajikistan. We have no information at this time about traditional sports. We do notice that football appears to be a passion among Tajik boys. No matter where you go, you can always observes boys playing football or at least kicking a fooball around. As soon as boys get home from school the footballs come out. We rarely see them playing any other sport. This seems to be almost entirely a boy activity. Rarely do you see girls with soccer balls. I'm not sure just when football became popular in Tajikistan. It was obviously duing the Soviet era. We suspect sometime after World War II.

Football

We know very little about sporys in Tajikistan. We have no information at this time about traditional sports. We do notice that football appears to be a passion among Tajik boys. No matter where you go, you can always observes boys playing football or at least kicking a fooball around. As soon as boys get home from school the footballs come out. This seems to be almost entirely a boy activity. Rarely do you see girls with soccer balls. I'm not sure just when football became popular in Tajikistan. It was obviously duing the Soviet era. We suspect sometime after World War II. We note that sports team uniform items are very popular. The wo most popular in Tajikistan for some reason are Manchester United and Arsenal.

Other Sports

We rarely see Tajik boys playing any other sport. We do not know of any sports which interests Tajik girls.

William Fergusson

Created: April 28, 2004
Last updated: 1:15 AM 4/30/2005