YEMEN: FOOTBALL/SOCCER - Gulf soccer fans converge on Aden despite security worries

Record ID: 269453

  • Title: YEMEN: FOOTBALL/SOCCER - Gulf soccer fans converge on Aden despite security worries
  • Date: 23rd November 2010
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) UNITED ARAB EMIRATES SOCCER FAN MUHAMMED QASSIM AL-SHIHRI SAYING "We found security and trust and hospitality from the Yemeni people. And I say to you (Arab Gulf fans) that you are welcome among your relatives and fellow people, the people of Yemen are generous, they're enlighten, they're educated and well mannered." VARIOUS OF FANS WAVING FLAGS IN THE STADIUM (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) MUHAMMED AL-KAYALI FROM SAUDI ARABIA SAYING: "We saw the situation ourselves that it was in contrary to what we heard. There have been some fears, but when we came, we found a country that is secure and everything is okay." MORE OF FANS WAVING FLAGS VARIOUS OF FANS WITH FACES PAINTED AND WAVING FLAGS CAMEL AND CHILDREN IN A PROCESSION (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SABIR AL-SHARIF, A LEBANESE JOURNALIST, SAYING: "For sure, we saw things completely different after we came to Aden. What was being said in the media was not true, the Yemeni people are kind and the fans love sport very much." VARIOUS OF SECURITY OUTSIDE STADIUM PEOPLE WALKING NEXT TO ARMOURED VEHICLE SECURITY ON THE STREETS ADEN, YEMEN (NOVEMBER 23, 2010) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) MUHAMMED AL-MAWRI, MEDIA SECRETARY FOR THE INTERIOR MINISTER, SAYING "The plan was well-made and everything was prepared including the human, financial and technical resources. That's why things went well yesterday, and in the coming days, the same way and discipline will continue until the end of the tournament." ADEN, YEMEN (NOVEMBER 22, 2010) (REUTERS) TRAFFIC ON ADEN STREET VIEW OF CITY MORE OF TRAFFIC WALL WITH ARTWORK SHOWING NATIONS TAKING PART IN TOURNAMENT EXTERIOR OF STADIUM AND FANS FANS OUTSIDE STADIUM
  • Embargoed: 8th December 2010 12:00
  • Keywords: Yemdunc
  • Location: Yemen, Yemen
  • Country: Yemen
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA14CIWHH07YX2N5QUOKVK5QZ2B
  • Story Text: Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh opened on Monday (November 22) the Gulf Cup soccer tournament in the southern port city of Aden in the first Arab Gulf sport event to be hosted by Yemen.
    The opening ceremony was attended by presidents of Djibouti, Ismael Omar Guilleh, and Eritrea, Isaiass Aforqi, and the Kuwaiti deputy prime minister and head of the Olympic council Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahid and Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council Abdul-Rahman al-Atiyah.
    The event was also attended by heads of the participating delegations and around 27,000 fans.
    The opening of the event helped the government prove its capability to organize the tournament amid security fears due to al Qaeda and separatist movement's presence in the south of the country.
    The Gulf Cup is being held in the southern port town of Aden, at a soccer stadium hit by two explosions last month blamed on separatists, as well as in a new stadium in Abyan, a flashpoint southern province where state forces recently launched a campaign to root out al Qaeda militants.
    Soccer fan from the United Arab Emirates Muhammed Qassim al-Shihri said he felt welcome in the country.
    "We found security and trust and hospitality from the Yemeni people. And I say to you (Arab Gulf fans) that you are welcome among your relatives and fellow people, the people of Yemen are generous, they're enlightened, they're educated and well mannered,'' he said.
    Muhammed al-Kayali from Saudi Arabia said the security situation in Aden was stable and that there was nothing to worry about.
    "We saw the situation ourselves that it was contrary to what we heard. There have been some fears, but when we came, we found a country that is secure and everything is okay," al-Kayali said.
    According to Yemeni officials, the country has allocated all the needed financial and human resources for hosting the competition.
    Sabir al-Sharif, a Lebanese journalist, said: "We saw things completely different after we came to Aden. What was being said in the media was not true, the Yemeni people are kind and the fans love sport very much."
    The impoverished Arabian Peninsula state, a neighbour to top oil exporter Saudi Arabia, said it had spent around 1 billion U.S dollars on the soccer event.
    Yemen, also trying to maintain a shaky truce with rebels in the north, is a focus of Western security concerns after two U.S.-bound parcel bombs were intercepted in Britain and Dubai in October, a plot claimed by al Qaeda's Yemen-based regional wing.
    Southern separatists have also threatened to organise mass protests during the soccer event. They see it as a ploy to promote unity under president Ali Abdullah Saleh's rule.
    Dozens of new checkpoints dot major streets, hotels and sports stadiums, and Saleh praised security measures, many of which were planned by an American firm hired for the cup.
    The 20th Gulf Cup will host teams from every Gulf Arab state as well as Iraq, in an event analysts say will test Yemen's ability to ensure security in the south.
    Muhammed al-Mawri, the media secretary for the interior minister, said the ministry worked hard to secure the area ahead of the competition.
    "The plan was well-made and every thing was prepared including the human, financial and technical resources. That's why things went well yesterday, and in the coming days, the same way and discipline will continue until the end of the tournament," he said.
    But despite more than 30,000 Yemeni troops being deployed before the tournament to maintain calm in the south, a roadside bomb in the region on Tuesday (November 23) killed one soldier and wounded two others riding in a military vehicle.
    After the explosion, Yemeni soldiers clashed with gunmen near the site. It was not yet clear who was behind the attack, a local official said.
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