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."
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Bundesliga fixtures
Saturday, May 16 (kick-offs UAE time)
Borussia Dortmund v Schalke (4.30pm)
RB Leipzig v Freiburg (4.30pm)
Hoffenheim v Hertha Berlin (4.30pm)
Fortuna Dusseldorf v Paderborn (4.30pm)
Augsburg v Wolfsburg (4.30pm)
Eintracht Frankfurt v Borussia Monchengladbach (7.30pm)
Sunday, May 17
Cologne v Mainz (4.30pm),
Union Berlin v Bayern Munich (7pm)
Monday, May 18
Werder Bremen v Bayer Leverkusen (9.30pm)
'Worse than a prison sentence'
Marie Byrne, a counsellor who volunteers at the UAE government's mental health crisis helpline, said the ordeal the crew had been through would take time to overcome.
“It was worse than a prison sentence, where at least someone can deal with a set amount of time incarcerated," she said.
“They were living in perpetual mystery as to how their futures would pan out, and what that would be.
“Because of coronavirus, the world is very different now to the one they left, that will also have an impact.
“It will not fully register until they are on dry land. Some have not seen their young children grow up while others will have to rebuild relationships.
“It will be a challenge mentally, and to find other work to support their families as they have been out of circulation for so long. Hopefully they will get the care they need when they get home.”
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
