Just a few hours later everything's changed. The traffic has virtually disappeared, night is falling. Boys and men start to appear, wearing shorts and football jerseys, some of them carrying small goals that they place in the middle of the now deserted road. Soon the first matches are underway. Every now and then proceedings are momentarily halted, to allow a lone taxi or truck to pass. Then play resumes, fiercer than before until, finally, about 1am the last goal is scored and Sule Pagoda Road is quiet again.
The players use a plastic ball, as a leather ball would wear away within hours, and are barefoot. Does it hurt? "It sure does," says twenty-something Ko Myo Zaw in between matches. "But after a while you get used to the pain. I forget about it. My love for the game is greater than the hurt."
Ko Myo Zaw once played in a competition for school teams in his home town, Dedaye, in Ayeryarwady Region. In those days his team played on real football pitches, with living grass and full sized goals. Since moving to Yangon to work at a gold shop, he has to take to the streets for physical excercise. "I still like to play soccer, but there are almost no soccer grounds in downtown Yangon," Ko Myo Zaw says. "There's no club I can join. What else can I do than play on the street with my friends?"
Sule Pagoda Road may be the most prominent street soccer location in Yangon, but there are other venues, ranging from sandy backstreets to the concrete pavements under flyovers, where boys and men play the most popular sport on earth. Not to mention chinlone, the national sport in which the sole purpose is to keep a rattan ball in the air as artfully as possible without handling it, a skill that can come in handy at a football pitch. Chinlone is played on virtually every streetcorner. No wonder Myanmar dominated the event in the Southeast Asian Games late last year.
Local football lovers tend to look down on the Myanmar National League, the highest Myanmar football division, in which twelve teams compete. Some consider the MNL to be unprofessional or even fixed. They prefer to watch the Premier League, the British sporting spectacle played by millionaires.
Myanmar ranks 173rd on the FIFA list, behind Laos and Guam. The national team even struggles against regional dwarfs such as Brunei and Timor Leste. There was a time, though, when Myanmar dominated Asian football. From 1955 to 1973 the men's soccer side was one of the most successful teams in Asia. The national team was well ahead of regional powers such as Japan, South Korea and Iran, countries that have dominated Asian football in recent years. In 1970, Myanmar won its second consecutive gold medal at the Asian Games in Thailand. This momentous victory caused a national celebration. In those days, Myanmar players such as national team captain (and champion 100 metre sprinter) Suk Bahadur, Soe Than and Aung Moe Than were famous throughout the country.
With all the talent evident on Yangon's streets, professional sides should be flourishing, especially since the MNL replaced the Myanmar Premier League in 2009 and a host of businessmen was persuaded to invest heavily in the new league. Do the MNL teams consider the streets a breeding ground for talent?
U Kyaw Lin Htwe, the general manager of Yangon United FC, says his side, sponsored by the tycoon U Tay Za's Air Bagan, organised talent days in 2010 and 2011. "In 2010 about 10,000 players showed up, many of them street soccer players," U Kyaw Lin Htwe says. "We selected the twenty most promising. One of them, Sithu Aung, is a regular in our first team. He wasn't a member of any club before. The year after we selected another eight talented players."
U Kyaw Lin Htwe is sad about the state of Yangon's football infrastructure. "Every township has its own football ground, but not every pitch is suitable to play soccer on. Some of them are not level. Others get flooded in the rainy season or are overgrown by weeds."
Is the number of sports grounds in Yangon declining? The Yangon City Development Committee could not be reached to comment on the trend in the number of pitches in the commercial capital, but things appear not to be looking up. Frantic business activity has in some cases lead to sports grounds being sold. In January, hundreds of residents in Yangon's Thingangyun Township protested against the sale of the neighbourhood's only football ground, when businessman U Tin Tun Oo acquired a long-term lease from the YCDC.
"Grabbing a sports ground is destroying children's morality. If it happens, the state leaders are responsible," protester Zaw Win told Mizzima at the time.
The news is not all bad, though. The Myanmar Football Federation is building its third football acadamy, near Yangon's Thuwanna Sports Ground, with the assistance of FIFA's Goal Project-5 programme. MFF president and Max Myanmar owner U Zaw Zaw will cover the construction costs. The new complex will feature two football grounds with artificial grass. The MFF has already opened football academies in Mandalay and Pathein.
For the time being Ko Wai Linn cherishes the opportunity of playing on the streets near Yangon's landmark downtown pagoda. Aged 30, he has given up on his dream of becoming a famous player. Like most Myanmar football fans he is a keen follower of the Spanish and British football leagues. "My favourite player is Christiano Ronaldo," he says. "He is very skillful and scores a lot of goals. Of course I like dribbling, but our games are not about artful play. We play to win. The goals are what count."
One of his friends, Ko Maung Than, has tucked his longyi into a knot around his thin waist in the style known as hkadaung kyaik. He spits out some betel and says: "Football is a way to forget the hard work and the problems we have. We only think of the ball, about making the right move, and scoring the deciding goal. I work at a gold shop as well. After I've played football, my mind is fresh again. We don't want any trouble. I hope the police and the YCDC will allow us to keep playing here."
This Article first appeared in the April 10, 2014 edition of Mizzima Business Weekly.
Mizzima Business Weekly is available in print in Yangon through Innwa Bookstore and through online subscription at www.mzineplus.com
http://www.information.myanmaronlinecentre.com/night-football/
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