I’ve always liked soccer. I played from ages 4-11, and played on a pretty decent intramural team for a few years in college. I also used to coach fundamentals as a part-time job in high school, which was pretty fun. All this said, I know I could be a lot more serious about my passion for soccer. I don’t have a Premier League team (though admittedly have been quite intrigued by Leicester’s success this year). On an international scale, Canada’s national men’s team has been utterly futile for thirty years, and thus it’s difficult to be attracted sometimes to the World Cup, CONCACAF or Euro tournaments. All this said, as much as I do like soccer, my passion for it is sorely lacking when I compare it to to football, hockey, and baseball.

Fortunately, in Indonesia, they’ve figured out a way to make soccer absolutely fucking amazing every single time. It’s pretty simple.

Take the soccer ball.

Douse it in gasoline.

LIGHT IT ON FIRE.

And play in bare feet.

This, dear readers, is known as sepak bola api, and it is a very important tradition as the island nation rings in the month of Ramadan. The name of the game actually translates literally to “flaming football”, which is nice for interpretive purposes.

The rules of the game are virtually identical to that of regular soccer (or association football, if we’re gonna be pretentious about this). The only real differences are that the pitch tends to be smaller, due to the country being highly populous and finding an open non-grassy area can be tricky, and in the construction of the ball. In the Indonesian variant, the ball is made of old coconut skins that have been dried out thoroughly and soaked in a combustible fluid, typically petroleum or kerosene. The coconut skins are a very important part of this, as a regular ball would burn out very quickly. Depending on who you talk to, some balls are soaked for up to a week, while others claim just half an hour will do the trick to make it last for the match.

Sepak bola api is played on the southern and eastern regions of Yogyakarta, Bogor, Tasikmalaya, and Papua, as a means of celebrating the month of Ramadan in this highly Muslim country. As far as I can tell, only men seem to play it – it seems to often be part of schools of the area.

While fasting during daytimes is a regular feature of Ramadan, players will sometimes start early, fasting up to 21 days before the match. Rituals are also highly important to participating in sepak bola api, and players will recite special prayers and undergo ceremonies as a means of invoking invulnerability to flame. Fortunately for them, their feet are also soaked in a non-flammable herb and spice mixture before the game kicks off as well.

As nuts as this is, players aren’t afraid to use bodies and heads like in regular soccer, and goalkeepers also use hands and arms to block shots as well. Check it out for yourself below!

I have to say, it’s pretty impressive. I’ve taken a regular soccer ball to the dick before. I think it’s fair to say that if it had been on fire, I probably just would have packed up and shuffled off this mortal coil forever. I am seriously impressed at these young men’s abilities to withstand this much pain – it’s impressive to watch as such a highly valued and unique part of Indonesian culture.