Russian football player about the Taiwanese championship: “We play at +37 during the day, because many stadiums have no lighting”

Tainan City FC Russian midfielder Alim Zumakulov said that in the Taiwanese championship, football players regularly experience dehydration and weakness amid hot weather on the island.

– For some reason, all matches are held at four o’clock in the afternoon – that is, not quite at the right time. If the phone shows the weather, conditionally, at +37, then in reality it feels like +48–50. And you still have to play in this heat. Before coming here, I didn’t know this was possible. Naturally, in such conditions it is impossible to press for 90 minutes, close all zones and show breakneck speed. The intensity drops quickly. In training, we drink water every 15 minutes, we naturally squeeze out clothes at the end. By the way, you don’t feel like going to the toilet at all – all the water immediately leaves you through your skin. Therefore, there are problems with doping control. Last year, after playing in the AFC Cup, I could not go to the jar – even after drinking four liters of water! So in Asian football you are constantly wildly dehydrated.

Nobody died? I don’t want to teach anyone, but who cares about football at all… What fan wants to come to the stadium at +37–38 at four o’clock in the afternoon and sit around like in a sauna? And what will the footballer show in such weather? Perhaps they play at such a time, because many stadiums have no lighting. But even on those where it is, they still play in the thick of it! – said Zumakulov “Championship”.

Zumakulov has been playing for Tainan City since 2020. Previously, he played in the championship of Mongolia.