Qatar and Yemen to enhance sport cooperation following youth football success

Qatar and Yemen are looking to enhance cooperation in sport and young people following a meeting in Doha yesterday between the Qatar Football Association (QFA) and Yemen’s under-15 football team. The team beat Saudi Arabia’s under-15s at the West Asian Junior Championship final earlier this month in Riyadh.

According to Doha News, Qatar’s Minister of Sport and Youth, Salah Bin Ghanem Al-Ali, met his Yemeni counterpart Nayef Bin Saleh Al-Bakri to discuss developing ties after the QFA invited the Yemeni youngsters to attend the final of the FIFA Arab Cup 2021, in which Algeria beat Tunisia 2-0.

اجتمع سعادة صلاح بن غانم العلي وزير الرياضة والشباب اليوم،مع نظيره اليمني معالي السيد نايف بن صالح البكري ، وفي نهاية الاجتماع صدر بيان مشترك يهدف إلى ترسيخ العلاقات الأخوية بين البلدين الشقيقين وتطوير العمل المشترك بينهما في مجالي الرياضة والشباب.#وزارة_الرياضة_والشباب pic.twitter.com/MTnXiOI8Dt

— وزارة الرياضة والشباب (@MSYQatar) December 21, 2021

“At the end of the meeting, a joint statement was issued aimed at consolidating brotherly relations between the two brotherly countries and developing joint work between them in the fields of sport and youth,” said a ministry tweet.

On Saturday, the QFA explained that by extending the invitation to the Yemeni side it was honouring the U15 team. “This, it is hoped, will serve as an incentive and motivation for them to continue at this level of high performance and enthusiasm that they showed throughout the tournament.”

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It added that the football associations of both countries have had close relations over many years and have signed a cooperation agreement. This will include supporting Yemeni sports teams and clubs in addition to the establishment of training camps in Doha and hosting matches for Yemeni teams.

After beating the Saudis 4-3 on penalties, celebrations erupted across all parts of war-torn and divided Yemen in a rare display of national unity. Even the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa in the north and the separatist-held southern port city of Aden were swept along by the festivities.

The war on Yemen by the Saudi-led coalition has been ongoing since 2015 in a bid to re-instate the internationally-recognised Yemen government. It has been in exile since the 21 September Revolution which saw the joint Houthi-Yemen army forces take over the capital. Last month, the UN warned that the war’s death toll could reach 377,000 by the end of the year.

Qatar was initially a member of the Arab coalition but was suspended in 2017 due to the Gulf diplomatic crisis which was resolved at the beginning of this year. While Qatar did not take part in operations inside Yemen, it had limited involvement on the Saudi-Yemen border and was said to be compelled to join the coalition by Riyadh, despite acting as a mediator in Yemen’s internal conflicts since 2007.

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