The Northern Syrian Football tournament for the first and second divisions kicked off Nov. 5 in the city of al-Bab in Aleppo’s countryside. The soccer games, which are expected to last until March, are being played in stadiums in the city of al-Bab city and the neighboring towns of Qabasin and B'zaah in northern Syria near the border with Turkey. 

After the Islamic State was expelled from the area in 2017, the Turkish government began overseeing the sports sector there in cooperation with local councils.

The tournament is a result of coordination between the local councils of al-Bab, Qabasin and B’zaah and the Qasioun news agency, a Syrian independent media institution based in Turkey. The agency is livestreaming the games on its Facebook page and YouTube channel, a first in northern Syria since the Syrian regime lost control over the area in 2013. 

Sports events in other parts of Syria are broadcast live on television, but the regime and its affiliated TV broadcasting system are behind the times and are unable to match the quality of the broadcasts or quantity of the cameras used for the northern Syria tournament. The Qasioun news agency has provided eight cameras, a mobile studio and a sports commentator for the Northern Syrian Football tournament.