Ruling on subscribing to sports channels only
Question

                What is the ruling on subscribing to sports channels only at home, because I do not want to be one of those who frequent cafes?
Praise be to Allah.Firstly: 
Whoever 
    reads your question will understand that you have the choice between two 
    things only, either watching sports in the cafes, or watching them at home. 
    The idea of not watching them at all has not occurred to you, which is 
    something that makes us feel sad, that the young men of the ummah are 
    distracted by watching sports matches, and following sports teams, and 
    venerating the people of leisure and idleness, which only makes the ummah 
    more backward in all fields. 
This 
    attitudes results from a number of causes: 

    1.Not understanding the value of 
    time, for if a person understood the value and importance of time, he would 
    not waste it in things that are of no benefit.

    2.Not keeping busy with serious 
    matters, such as knowledge, a skill or trade. Rather many students think 
    that if they study what is taught at school, they have done what they are 
    obliged to do. They forget that they, like anyone else who is accountable, 
    should hasten to do good deeds and fill their pages with hasanaat. Indeed 
    this is required even more so of them because they are young and strong and 
    and have relatively few worries.

    3.Not having righteous friends 
    who can help one to obey Allaah. 
These are 
    the most important causes of negligence which must be dealt with quickly 
    before it is too late. 
Secondly: 
You should 
    ask yourself a number of questions which will help you to adopt the correct 
    attitude with regard to this issue, such as the following: 

    1.What if you stopped watching 
    all the matches? What would happen? Boredom, anxiety, regret, but for how 
    long? One day or a few days, then you would become more at ease and your 
    evil inclinations would grow weaker, and your days would become pleasant, 
    and would grow more pleasant the more you nourish your faith with knowledge, 
    dhikr and acts of worship. For there is a longing in the soul that can only 
    be fulfilled with remembrance of Allaah and contact with Allaah.

    2.What is the benefit in watching 
    these games for years on end? Enjoyment, learning to play well, killing 
    time, hanging out with one’s friends, then what? Are these aims which a wise 
    Muslim should be striving to attain?

    As for enjoyment, it soon ceases, leaving behind a sense of 
    loss and regret for having wasted time.  

    As for learning to play well, this is a claim that has no 
    basis. How much have you benefited from what you watched before? How much 
    have others benefited? Is it an honour for you to be recorded before Allaah 
    as a player? 

    As for killing time, since when is time an enemy that you 
    should strive to kill?! Time is your breath, it is your lifetime and the 
    moments of your life which you could fill with thousands and millions of 
    hasanaat. It is sufficient for you to say Subhaan Allaah wa bi hamdihi 
    (Glory and praise be to Allaah) once, and a palm tree will be planted for 
    you in Paradise, so how many gardens have you failed to plant? How many 
    hasanaat have you lost? 

    As for hanging out with your friends, look at your friends 
    more closely and ask whether any of them will enter your grave with you. 
    Which of them will help you on the Day of Judgement? Allaah says 
    (interpretation of the meaning): 

    “Friends on that Day will be foes one to another except 
    Al‑Muttaqoon (the pious)”

    [al-Zukhruf 43:67] 

    “That Day shall a man flee from his brother,

    35. And from his mother and his father,

    36. And from his wife and his children.

    37. Every man that Day will have enough to make him careless 
    of others”

    [‘Abasa 80:34-37] 

    “And (remember) the Day when the Zaalim (wrongdoer, 
    oppressor, polytheist) will bite at his hands, he will say: ‘Oh! Would that 
    I had taken a path with the Messenger (Muhammad).

    28. Ah! Woe to me! Would that I had never taken so‑and‑so as 
    a Khaleel (an intimate friend)!

    29. He indeed led me astray from the Reminder (this Qur’aan) 
    after it had come to me.’ And Shaytaan (Satan) is to man ever a deserter in 
    the hour of need”

    [al-Furqaan 25:27-29]

    3.Is watching matches and 
    watching sports channels free from committing haraam deeds, as claimed by 
    your soul that is inclined to evil? Haraam may enter your heart by watching 
    female announcers, or watching female players, or watching some of the 
    female spectators, when the camera focuses on them time after time. Why 
    would a person deceive himself? Hour after hour will be wasted with no 
    benefit; do you not feel ashamed before Allaah? Do you not get up after that 
    and your heart feels distressed because of its darkness and lack of 
    remembrance of Allaah? You remember the names of these players, support 
    their clubs and follow their news, but some of them may not even believe in 
    Allaah. Are you not embarrassed by that? If you were to be asked about the 
    lives of ten of the Sahaabah you would not be able to answer. What a great 
    calamity this is.
Moreover, 
    can you trust yourself not to become addicted to watching and that the 
    shaytaan will not gradually lead you to watch other channels? Real life 
    shows us how the shaytaan has deceived people when they followed in his 
    footsteps. He made attractive to them the idea of watching sports only, then 
    he kept prompting them until they started to watch everything. Do not ask 
    about their confusion and loss, do not ask about their prayer and qiyaam, do 
    not ask about their wird and dhikr. The one who is truly protected is the 
    one whom Allaah protects. 
Be careful, 
    and take stock of yourself before you are called to account; weigh up your 
    deeds before they are weighed and counted against you. Beware of the tricks 
    of the shaytaan, for it starts with something insignificant but soon it 
    becomes like a mountain which no man can carry, and when sins accumulate 
    they will destroy a man. 
Allaah 
    says: 
“O you 
    who believe! Follow not the footsteps of Shaytaan (Satan). And whosoever 
    follows the footsteps of Shaytaan (Satan), then, verily, he commands 
    Al‑Fahsha’ [i.e. to commit indecency (illegal sexual intercourse)], and 
    Al‑Munkar [disbelief and polytheism (i.e. to do evil and wicked deeds; and 
    to speak or to do what is forbidden in Islam)]”
[al-Noor 
    24:21]
The Prophet 
     (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Beware of trivial 
    sins, for they will accumulate until they destroy a man.” And the Messenger 
    of Allaah  (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) gave an example, 
    likening them to people who stopped to camp in the wilderness, and they 
    wanted to prepare some food, so one man went and brought a stick, and 
    another man brought a stick, until they had gathered a huge pile and lit a 
    fire, and whatever they put in the pot was cooked asa result. Narrated by 
    Ahmad from the hadeeth of Ibn Mas’ood; classed as hasan by al-Albaani in 
    Saheeh al-Jaami’, no. 2687. 
Hence we 
    advise you to fear Allaah and to remain steadfast in obedience to Him, and 
    beware of disobeying Him. Keep away from these channels which, even if they 
    are free of haraam things, will still deprive you of a great deal of good 
    and much reward, and will reduce your status. 
Think about 
    what Ibn al-Qayyim said about himself: One day Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah 
    (may Allaah sanctify his soul) said to me concerning some permissible 
    matter: This does not befit a man who aspires to attain a high status, even 
    though avoiding it is not a condition of salvation. Or words to that effect. 
    The wise man will refrain from many permissible things so as to protect 
    himself, especially if that permissible thing falls in between halaal and 
    haraam. End quote from Madaarij al-Saalikeen (2/26). 
We ask 
    Allaah to guide us and you. 
And Allaah 
    knows best.