For the first time in Sanaa.. the absence of mass viewing of the World Cup
English - Monday 12 December 2022 الساعة 02:20 pm
Sana'a, NewsYemen, special report:
For the first time in decades, the residents of Sana'a faced many difficulties in following the FIFA World Cup 2022, which will be held in Qatar, especially with regard to mass viewing, due to the actions of the Houthi militia, the Iranian arm in Yemen, regarding the places that provided the requirements for mass viewing.
During the past decades, Sana'a cafes and cafés used to turn the World Cup into an occasion in which social and economic values overlap and provide people with the requirements to follow the World Cup matches for citizens who preferred to watch collectively, including bilateral and group meetings for family members or relatives and friends from various social and Sunni strata.
Unlike the World Cups in Brazil 2014 AD and Russia 2018 AD, the World Cup in Qatar is the first that most - if not all - residents of Sanaa are watching in their homes for the first time after they were watching it in cafes, cafes and commercial centers that used to take advantage of such an occasion and provide services to people, just as it is the time The first in which there was no aspect of providing screens for the World Cup in the streets, as was the case in previous tournaments.
With the exception of some places that provided viewing services for the World Cup in Sana'a, and unlike the situation in the World Cup in Russia 2018, the majority of Sana'a's residents and youth are watching the matches in their homes or in confined family gatherings.
Muhammad Al-Misbahi, a 27-year-old young man, told NewsYemen: Unlike the World Cup in Russia, which we used to watch in cafes and collectively with family members or with relatives and friends, we found ourselves in the Qatar World Cup forced to follow the matches at home or confinedly with some friends due to the lack of places that provide Collective viewing service, specifically cafes and cafes that have been closed by the Houthi authority.
And he adds: During this World Cup, there are some places that provided follow-up service to the World Cup, but they are few on the one hand, and on the one hand, they are not close to the homes of many sports fans and fans of collective viewing of World Cup matches. Not to mention the controls set by the Houthi militia that prevent families from entering or being in these places.
The Houthi militia had deliberately closed most cafes and cafes in Sana'a with justifications for preventing mixing and imposing many conditions and obligations on cafes and cafes that tried to continue their work, including not mixing and preventing the entry of young men and women even if they were separately. And preventing families from entering such cafes and limiting their visitors to young men and men only, not to mention the levies and royalties imposed on these cafes and cafes, which led to the inability of even those who tried to keep the work of their cafes to continue and forced them to close them under the weight of bankruptcy.
For his part, Saleh Al-Obaidi indicates that he was a fan of group viewing of the World Cup matches, and this is what he used to do during the previous World Cups, but he found himself unable to continue doing so this time due to the lack of places that provide group viewing and I said it, if any.
And he continues to NewsYemen: I am keen to watch the matches that were played early, especially the group matches in the Libyan center, but I had to go home to follow the matches that are held at night because the center is closed at nine in the evening. Where the center was prevented from continuing to open its doors to people late at night.
He confirms that he visited some of the places that provided watching the World Cup, but he noticed the lack of attendees on the one hand and on the other hand, that most of them belong to the segment of young people affiliated with the segment of the rich who can pay for the services provided by these places, and the absence of any family manifestations of collective viewing that was available during all Previous World Cup tournaments. He concluded by saying: In the 2014 World Cup and even in 2018, you could take your wife and family members to any cafe to watch the World Cup matches. However, in this World Cup, this has become impossible due to the measures imposed by the Houthi authorities in this field.
Although the timing of the Qatar Winter World Cup coincides with the study and also the cold weather in Sana'a, which are factors that limit people's quest to go to places that provide mass viewing, despite the lack thereof, some believe that the Houthi militia's actions regarding cafes and cafes and their closure also have an economic dimension.
Samir Al-Audaini, a student at the Faculty of Commerce at Sana'a University, told NewsYemen: The first beneficiary of the lack of cafes, cafes, and centers that provide group viewing of the World Cup is the Houthi militia authority, explaining that this led to the necessity of many people to follow the tournament via the Internet.
He adds to NewsYemen: Most of the residents of Sana'a follow the World Cup matches in Qatar via the Internet, whether at home or by telephone, which generates a large financial income for the Houthi militia authority that controls telecommunications and Internet services.
And he goes on: Personally and a large number of my family members, relatives and friends are watching the current World Cup matches in Qatar at home via the Internet, which I noticed has led to an increase in the amounts we pay to obtain these services, whether the home Internet service or the telephone Internet service, especially (4g) where we watch Matches through applications such as “Yassin TV” compared to what we pay on normal days, which turns into financial income in large sums that the Houthi militia authority benefits from.
And he concludes: And if there is something I can conclude with, it is that the World Cup in Qatar is the first World Cup that I watch, and with me the majority of the residents of Sana’a, watching it individually because of the actions of the Houthi militia that affected cafes and cafes that were a meeting place to follow this tournament in a family and collective atmosphere full of joy, encouragement and happiness. The situation is no longer limited to the subject of the World Cup. Rather, it has now extended to include all aspects of life in Sana'a and areas controlled by the Houthi militia, which every year impose more ISIS policies related to restricting and confiscating people's personal and collective freedoms.
