Mukalla, Yemen – Weeks before this year’s World Cup started, Adel Mohsen’s backup battery broke down, and he couldn’t afford to replace it, leaving him without power at home when electricity outages hit. Fuel shortages in his eastern Yemen city of Mukalla also made it hard to secure petrol for his motorbike, limiting his ability to travel to watch games elsewhere.
Adel, a 56-year-old football enthusiast who has watched every World Cup since 1982, is frustrated. Despite a decade of war and economic collapse, he has always found a way to follow the tournament. But this year, the challenges feel insurmountable.
“I think this is the worst World Cup,” Adel told Al Jazeera, settling onto a wooden bench as his eyes fixed on a giant public screen at a local stadium. “I might miss a lot of matches because of the power cuts.”
Even after paying for a subscription to a local television service airing the games, Adel could not secure the $200 needed for a backup battery, nor could he afford internet vouchers to stream matches on his phone. The local stadium became his only option.
Shortly before the opening match between South Africa and Mexico, generators hummed to life and the projector flickered on just minutes before kickoff. The courtyard was dark, paved with worn stone slabs. Two men sat chewing qat, resting their backs against cement blocks. A few others lounged on a raised platform, scrolling through phones as they chewed. The heat and humidity were intense; everyone was sweating.
Adel quickly shifted into analysis mode. “The Mexicans will keep attacking until they score a goal,” he said, glancing at his old mobile phone to review notes he planned to use later for local TV or social media. His prediction came true as Mexico scored the opening goal.
“I watch matches now through the eyes of an analyst rather than as a casual fan,” he explained. “There are only a few spectators here since neither team is very popular. Matches between big teams, such as Brazil, or Arab teams, usually attract far larger crowds.”
Falling in Love with Football
In 1982, the FIFA World Cup was hosted in Spain, only a few years after television first arrived in Mukalla and other cities of the former People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY), or South Yemen. Adel was 12, and he remembers clearly where he and other fans gathered to watch.
“That was like a first lover engraved in memory,” he said with a smile. “Although I was just a child, I still remember the names of the players and the stadiums. Brazil had one of its greatest generations, with stars like Zico, Falcao, and Eder. The tournament was marked by Italy’s rough defenders, most notably Claudio Gentile, whose violent tactics went unpunished.”
Adel watched with his father and brothers. “The atmosphere around the games was familial,” he said. “Those without televisions would gather at neighbors’ homes to watch together.”
Football Through War
In 1986, thousands were killed in Aden when infighting erupted between rival factions of the governing Socialist Party. That same year, Mexico hosted the World Cup. Adel, then 16, watched from the same room in his family’s home.
“I was in secondary school, and I watched the matches with a deeper appreciation of the game,” he recalled. “That tournament belonged to Diego Maradona.”
By 1990, the year North and South Yemen united, Adel was a 20-year-old amateur footballer. Watching the World Cup in Italy, he studied tactics and skills, replicating them during training sessions and matches across Yemen.
But unity did not last. In 1994, civil war erupted, and as the World Cup kicked off in the United States, fighting spread fear across Yemeni cities.
“That was the worst World Cup I have ever watched,” he said. “It was the most difficult tournament because people were worried about the war. Security was unstable, and frequent power outages made it even harder to follow the games. I would watch one match and then miss three.”
Watching Against the Odds
After the 1994 civil war, relative stability followed, and the tournaments of 1998, 2002, 2006, and 2010 were easy to watch for Adel.
But then came the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, arriving just as Yemen slid deeper into instability. Al-Qaeda and other groups gained ground, and the current war began in late 2014 when Houthi rebels took over Sanaa.
Today, as the 2026 World Cup unfolds, Adel finds himself back in a familiar struggle: balancing his love for football with the harsh realities of life in a war-torn country.