The Yemeni people had gathered across the country to watch the finale of the 2021 U-15 WAFF championships between Yemen and Saudi Arabia on December 13th. Nobody had expected the Yemeni team to get this far in the championship as they were disqualified to compete in 2019. Parents with their sons and daughters, young people adorned in the colors of their homeland’s flag sat etched on their seats as the match progressed. As the clock was ticking nearing towards the end, the Saudi team was about to potentially win the championship with a penalty. Yemen’s goalkeeper miraculously shuns the football away from the net, securing Yemen’s victory. Yemen’s young U-15 players, for the first time, had won the West Asian Championship.

The entire nation collectively roared like an eagle, with its screams and cries of joy to be heard across the entire country. Celebratory gunfire blasted through the skies of Yemen, with its distinct tracer ammunition illuminating the sky together with an abundance of fireworks. The people rushed to the streets to celebrate this astonishing victory for Yemen as a whole. Official news called these celebrations unprecedented in emotion and sheer size.

The skies of #Yemen's capital Sanaa lit up this evening after Yemen's national team won against Saudi Arabia in the West Asian U-17 Cup.

Official Yemeni news calls the celebrations unprecedented in many years. pic.twitter.com/dUvizsdeBM

— Rune Agerhus (@Aldanimarki) December 13, 2021

People outside of Yemen might be wondering why Yemen’s almost 30 million people celebrated the victory of a minor youth team. After all, likewise, celebrations are seen in the west usually happen because of victories in grand international championships. In Yemen however, December 13th was different. The Yemeni U-15 team’s victory was not only a victory in regional football tournaments but a clear symbolic victory against a regime that is waging a brutal war of aggression against Yemen, backed by the United States. Nearing an entire decade of arbitrary war against their country, the Yemeni people saw the opportunity to celebrate.

#اليمن_يؤدب_السعودية#اليمن_السعودية#بطولة_غرب_اسيا_للناشئين pic.twitter.com/1FMwbkezfw

— kamal sharaf كمال شرف (@kamalsharf) December 13, 2021

On social media, the celebrations reached new heights. Yemeni officials, political commentators, and other prominent people took their time to congratulate their young football heroes on their resounding victory. A cartoon by prominent Yemeni cartoonist Kamal Sharaf depicts a Yemeni football piercing the goal net of Saudi Arabia as the ultimate symbolic Yemeni victory in the WAFF championship finale. Member of the Supreme Political Council Mohammad Ali AlHouthi promised the U-15 national team that they will prepare a statesman’s welcoming when the team returns to the capital. “From victory to victory, Yemen lives”, AlHouthi stated in his congratulatory tweet.

For once, the Yemeni people felt the need to celebrate a victory against Saudi Arabia. “As we have achieved this victory in sports, we will achieve a likewise victory on our lands”, one Sana’a resident told Yemen’s Almasirah Television. And this is exactly the mood that filled Yemen’s many cities on the evening of December 13th. Yemen has lost thousands upon thousands of children to forced starvation, as Saudi Arabia continues to maintain a crippling blockade on the country. Aerial bombardments are also a frequent occurrence, leaving critical infrastructure and human lives crippled in an already volatile environment.

The Yemeni people perceive this victory as something that is not solely entertaining or sports-related, but political in nature as a slap in the face to the nations that have brought harm to Yemen. With steady achievements on the Marib front and an ever-increasing domestic agricultural production in line with Yemen’s wish to become self-sufficient, this victory is just one of many recent positive achievements in the face of imperialist aggression.

“I’ve been a big fan of football for most of my life and an ardent supporter of our national teams. I watch football with joy, even despite the obvious fact that I and the rest of the Yemeni people have been living under devastating aggression for the past seven years”, said Yousef in a private conversation with me. Yousef is a Sana’a resident and an IT programmer. “Our national team won a fierce match on Saudi territory. Just as we gained this victory on the football field, we are gaining grand victories on the battlefields, recently in Marib. Yemen is victorious on both fields, bringing us much-needed joy and happiness. Long live to our football players and our army”, Yousef adjourned his message.

This victory wasn’t just a victory of a football match. It was a victory of the Yemeni people against the states of aggression. And despite the war and internal conflict besides the war of aggression, the national U-15 football team managed to unite the entire Yemeni people. Even if just for a single night.

By Rune Agerhus, Member of the Organization of Solidarity with the Yemeni Struggle (OSYS)