Football 'miracle' offers shared goal for war-torn Yemen

A Yemeni boy kicks the ball in the air during a football match among friends and neighbours in the capital Sanaa on April 11, 2018. A shock winning streak has propelled Yemen's youth and men's football teams to the Asian Cup, capturing the nation's attention and offering a common goal to a divided country. Mohammed Huwais / AFP

Yemeni youth take part in a football match in their neighbourhood in the capital Sanaa. Mohammed Huwais / AFP

Yemeni youth take part in a football match as part of the local league in the capital Sanaa. Mohammed Huwais / AFP

Yemeni youth take part in a football match in their neighbourhood in the capital Sanaa on April 11, 2018. A shock winning streak has propelled Yemen's youth and men's football teams to the Asian Cup, capturing the beleaguered nation's attention and offering a common goal to a divided country. The qualification is a first ever for the senior team, currently based in Qatar, and a rare achievement for the under-16s who still train in Yemen. / AFP PHOTO / MOHAMMED HUWAIS

Yemeni youth take part in a football match in their neighbourhood in the capital Sanaa. Mohammed Huwais / AFP

A Yemeni boy kicks up a football in the air during a match among friends and neighbours in the capital Sanaa. Mohammed Huwais / AFP

A "miracle" winning streak has propelled Yemen's senior and youth football teams to the Asian Cup, catching the war-torn nation's attention and offering a common goal to a divided country.

Qualification is a first for the senior team, currently based in Qatar, and a rare achievement for the under-16s, who still train in Yemen.

"Qualification has brought Yemenis together – they're doing us proud," said Ahmed Sabahi, a fan in the southern port city of Aden.

"All Yemenis are behind their team," he said.

Yemen's war, pitting pro-government forces supported by a Saudi-led coalition against Iran-backed Houthi rebels, entered its fourth year in March.

The conflict has left nearly 10,000 people dead, tens of thousands wounded and created what the United Nations says is the world's worst humanitarian crisis, rife with once-forgotten diseases such as cholera and diphtheria.

"We hope the team will honour Yemen and give Yemenis some relief," said Mr Sabahi.

The senior team beat Nepal 2-1 on March 27, reaching the next year's AFC Asian Cup – which will be contested in January and February in the UAE – for the first time in Yemen's history.

The under-16 tournament is to take place in Malaysia in September and October.

To build the youth team, selectors travelled the length of the country, including war zones and sectors controlled by rival factions.

Ranked 125th in the world by the sport's governing body Fifa, Yemen's senior team has never won a match in the Gulf Cup against its neighbours since the competition was launched in 1970.

Yemen's media used to congratulate the team for an "honourable defeat" if they avoided a hammering. Asian Cup qualification was hailed as nothing less than a "miracle".

Football, not politics

Yemen's senior football players have relocated to a training camp in Qatar.

Abd Al Salam Al Saadi, a coach in Sanaa, said: "The players have not been drawn into politics."

Yemen's war has left infrastructure, homes, schools and ports in ruins. Dozens of stadiums have been turned into military camps for various armed factions.

For football fans back home, Yemen's successful qualification offers a glimmer of hope and a distraction from everyday life in what was the Arab world's poorest country even before the war.

It has "helped put a smile on the face of Yemeni youths, who need reasons to be happy and to forget", said Saleh Hanash, another fan in Aden.

More than half of Yemen's 27-million-population are aged under 18.

According to the UN children's fund Unicef, hundreds of minors have been recruited into militias.

'Bring back the spirit'

After a three-year hiatus, football is making a return to Aden, which Yemen's internationally-recognised government has declared its provisional capital while Sanaa remains in rebel hands.

The national league has been suspended, but football matches are being played in the southern port city, with local tournaments organised between districts.

Football in Yemen "doesn't gather the crowds you see next door in Gulf states", said Fadel Al Wasabi, one of a handful of fans seated on green plastic chairs as two clubs battled it out on a dirt pitch beside a wall pocked by shellfire.

"Maybe that's because Yemenis are preoccupied with securing their basic needs," he said.

Ahmed Hussein Husseini, head of Aden's main sports organisation, admitted it was a tall order: "In the shadow of war, we are trying, as much as possible, to bring back the spirit and adapt our lives."