Feature article

The story of Mohammed Farah

The first time I met Mohammed was at a Sports Documentary panel event. He came over and introduced himself, with a big smile on his face. Mohammed exuded confidence and he was very welcoming. We spoke about the passion we both share for sport media and exchanged contact details.

Fast forward a few weeks later, the interview took place at Cyncoed campus, Mohammed was gracious enough to invite me to lunch. He was very relaxed and excited to share his story. While studying for his degree in Sport and Exercise Science, Mohammed was working as a part-time security guard at BBC Media City in Salford.

“Working there showed me that sport broadcasting is a fascinating career,” Mohammed said. He got to meet so many people that work in the media during his time as a security guard for BBC, he also met famous sport celebrities like Dion Dublin and Alan Shearer.

Just like a sponge absorbs water, Mohammed used his time at BBC to absorb information, he witnessed firsthand how producers run projects and complete them. He credits the floor managers, the camera crew, and other members of staff for being very helpful towards him and answering his questions.

Mohammed described that he got to learn a lot about commentary during lockdown because most commentators were stationed at the BBC, they used a live feed to commentate on matches. Alex Scott the former professional footballer and current sports presenter invited Mohammed to see how she prepares for her shows.

Mohammed is no stranger to finding opportunities wherever he goes. He used the contacts at his disposal and the relationships he built at BBC to make a drastic change in his profession.

Mohammed explained to Journalist Jason Mohammad that he was keen to work in the sport media sector, “I approached journalist Jason Mohammad, who is also from Cardiff, he advised me about the bursary that S4C, Media Atom, Rondo and his production company were offering,” Mohammed said.

Mohammed won the S4C sports broadcasting scholarship in 2022, which was an initiative designed to help students from Black, Asian or other underrepresented minority heritages. The young man from Cardiff did not hesitate; he used the bursary to study a master’s degree in Sport Broadcasting at Cardiff Metropolitan University.

“Jason Mohammad is like a mentor to me, I am extremely happy that I have been offered this amazing opportunity, and I am working hard to develop my broadcast production skills, I like making digital content and recording and producing radio content,” Mohammed said.

The aspiring broadcaster is originally from Somalia, he grew up in Butetown, “growing up in Butetown was beautiful as it is such as close-knit community where everybody helps each other,” Mohammed said. He is very passionate about helping his community thanks to his environment, his sense of belonging is tremendously important to him.

He is a native Somali speaker and in addition to English, he is learning Welsh to add a third language to his repertoire. Mohammed completed his degree in Sport and Exercise Science last year, he revealed that one of his biggest goals in life is to “steer local youths within his community on the correct path.”

Mohammed and a couple of his friends collaborated to set up a football club at his local area because a juniors team did not exist at the time. “That was one of my biggest achievements in sport,” Mohammed said. This example in particular speaks volumes about the character of Mohammed and how he wants to see people from his community succeed and reach greater heights.

“It is something more than football, we help kids with their education at the local youth centre, we spoke to the schools and teachers and asked them if they had any specific areas that they would like us to focus on.”

“There a massive park inside Butetown were I spent the majority of my childhood playing all different types of sports”. Mohammed reflected on one of his best memories he added, “When I was growing up as a kid in Butetown in the 90s, there used to be a massive carnival during the August bank holiday and everybody that lived in Butetown used to look forward to it.”

From a young age Mohammed was interested in the training and the physical aspects of sports. He is a devoted boxing fan, currently he coaches tiger bay football club under 14s while also helping out at his local boxing club in Grangetown. He was a former amateur boxer at the renowned Grange Catholics boxing club, he also used to coach under 15s before it closed down due to a lack of funding. 

Mohammed’s earliest memory of boxing was “Watching Nigel Benn v Gerald McClellan fight in 1995 at the London docklands arena, big world title fights used to come on ITV, and it was a big fight feel live on a Saturday night”. Mohammed watched the fight with his late father who was also a massive boxing fan and his brother.

“After the fight I was hooked on boxing and started following the sport, that weekend I felt inspired, so I put on a pair of boxing gloves, and I started boxing training myself.”

Like most teenagers growing up in the 90’s Mohammed turned to sport to find positive role models “My favorite athlete when I was growing up was the Brazilian Ronaldo, I watched him play for Barcelona against Valencia in 1996 in a La Liga game and he was unstoppable.

“I was also a big Mike Tyson fan, I was always fascinated by his fights, he had a special aura around him.”

Mohammed explained that representation is very important to him “it is good to see people from different backgrounds sharing different perspectives in sports media”

Mohammed believes that representation encourages people who are interested in the industry to feel comfortable that a career in sports media is available to them, “having people from different walks of life also gives the industry more stories to tell and more creative ideas.”

Mohammed revealed that he still works security shifts for BBC during his spare time because he loves customer service. He eloquently described that it is also a way for him to gain knowledge about the industry and practice his skills during his break.

At university Mohammed enjoys covering the BUCS Wednesday games, “getting involved in amateur rugby and university sports rugby, and to see how big it is, it is really interesting.

Another big event that I covered was the battle of the diff boxing between Cardiff Met and Cardiff University, watching different fighters perform was a joy for me as a big admirer of the sport.” Mohammed did the pre- and post-match interviews for the events above.

When talking about his love for sport Mohammed said “I have always been somebody who is extremely interested in sports and being active, my love for sports attracted me to a career in sports broadcasting.

“Finding stories about different sports athletes and how sports broadcasting is changing everyday as well, has attracted me to this industry.”

Mohammed described that his favourite questions to ask when he does interviews, are about the training regiments of different athletes. He is also very curious to learn more about the viewing habits of the audience.

During the interview Mohammed talked about his favorite sports documentaries “I have a few favourite sports documentaries; one is Muhammad Ali by Ken Burns, I highly recommend it to anybody because the storytelling is amazingly put together and it mixes his civil rights work, personal life, and his boxing career.

“Another favourite sports documentary is called STAND which is about the life of former NBA player Mahamoud Abdul-Rauf who was blackballed from the league for his political and religious beliefs.”

Mohammed’s short-term goal is to get his MSc in Sport Broadcasting and then he mentioned that he is going to start looking for a variety of career opportunities in the industry “Sports media is a highly competitive and a fast-moving industry, so I need to keep practicing the skills that I have learned so far,” Mohammed said.

To close the interview Mohammed shared some advice for people who are thinking about joining the world of sport  broadcasting, he said “ you have to be a person that is open, friendly, and humble, you must be willing to ask the difficult questions because there is a lot to ask and you will never learn unless you put yourself out there and make mistakes but most importantly, take them on board and learn from them.”

Mohammed was not afraid to say that he made a lot of mistakes along the way, but he was eager to receive feedback in order to improve. He is a big believer in self-development, he said “it is vital as the more you prepare the better you will be in your career.”