ADEN, Yemen, May 18 (Xinhua) -- As the clock approached 3 p.m., the familiar rhythm slowly returned to Yemen's eastern port city of Mukalla.
Young men draped in club colors hurried toward Baradem Stadium. Vendors pushed carts of tea and snacks through crowded streets. Drums echoed from inside the arena as fans filled the terraces under the fading afternoon sun.
For the first time in nearly 12 years, Yemen's Premier League had returned.
In a country where war has reshaped nearly every corner of daily life, the scene carried meaning far beyond football.
"When the fans started singing and the match began, people forgot their worries for a while," said Esmet Naji, a Yemeni football fan attending the opening match.
"War has exhausted Yemenis mentally and emotionally," he told Xinhua. "Football gives people space to breathe again and feel connected to life."
The league resumed earlier this month for the 2025-26 season with 14 clubs competing in a round-robin format, reviving one of Yemen's few remaining national institutions still capable of bringing people together.
Since conflict erupted in late 2014, Yemen has witnessed deep fragmentation. The humanitarian consequences have been devastating.
The United Nations estimates that more than 22 million people in Yemen will require humanitarian assistance in 2026, reflecting not only the fighting that has killed tens of thousands, but also the slow economic collapse that has hollowed out daily life across the country.
Against this backdrop, the return of football offered Yemenis something increasingly rare: a moment that felt normal.
Throughout the years of war, Yemen's institutions became deeply divided. Parallel administrations emerged across the country, and even local youth and sports offices were fragmented across frontlines.
However, the Yemeni Football Association maintained its administrative and organizational unity throughout the conflict, continuing to oversee competitions and represent Yemeni football internationally.
For many Yemenis, football became one of the last shared spaces where the idea of a united Yemen could still survive, even if only for 90 minutes.
Near the stadium entrance in Mukalla, tea seller Ahmed Bawazeer stood watching crowds stream toward the gates with a smile that rarely appeared during years of hardship.
"For years, stadiums were silent and empty," he said. "Today, people are laughing again. Even the streets feel alive."
Like many Yemenis struggling under worsening economic conditions, Bawazeer said match days now offer small business owners a rare chance to earn income.
Beyond economics, he said the return of football restored something harder to describe. "People missed gathering together," he said. "They missed feeling normal."
Inside the stadium, the atmosphere resembled a release of emotions accumulated over years of war.
Children climbed damaged terraces, waving flags. Fans beat drums from concrete stands scarred by neglect and conflict. Chants echoed through aging corridors that had long fallen silent.
For many young Yemenis, the matches represented the return of a part of life they feared had disappeared forever.
"Many Yemeni youths spent their teenage years hearing explosions, watching conflict and living with fear," said Mohammed Saeed, a 19-year-old university student. "When football returned, it brought back energy and hope," he said.
Saeed described football as a psychological escape for a generation raised amid instability, displacement and uncertainty. "Football gives young people something positive to gather around instead of thinking only about war and problems. It is like emotional survival," he added.
Across Yemen, the war's impact on sports infrastructure has been severe.
Many stadiums suffered damage or neglect. Clubs struggled financially. Numerous players abandoned football entirely to search for work and support their families as the economy deteriorated.
For years, organized football activity nearly disappeared, replaced mostly by neighborhood tournaments played on dusty fields amid rolling power outages and fuel shortages.
Yet public passion for the sport never faded. The league's return after years of suspension has generated broad public and media attention both inside Yemen and across the Arab region, according to Yemeni sports observer Mansour Al-Dubai.
Al-Dubai told Xinhua that organizing the competition in a home-and-away format presented a major challenge under Yemen's fragile security and economic conditions.
"The most important thing is that life and spirit have returned to the stadiums," he said. "You can once again see the interaction between the fans, the clubs and the players."
According to Al-Dubai, the return of professional Yemeni players from Arab leagues, along with the hiring of Arab coaches, has also given the competition an important technical boost after years of stagnation.
Former Yemeni national football coach Talal Al-Marhabi shared a similar view. "People desperately needed something positive," Al-Marhabi said. "The matches allowed Yemenis to escape, even briefly, from the pressures of daily life."
He added that sports activities help rebuild confidence and social connections damaged by years of conflict, especially among young people.
Elsewhere in Yemen, similar scenes unfolded far from Mukalla.
In the central province of Ibb, fans gathered once again inside a war-damaged stadium, sitting on shattered terraces and crumbling stands still bearing the scars of conflict and airstrikes.
Yet chants and applause once again echoed through the aging venue, reflecting both the devastation of war and the resilience of Yemenis determined to hold onto moments of life through football.
For many Yemenis, the celebrations inside the stadium carried emotions far deeper than the outcome of a football match.
As fans danced and waved flags following the final whistle, Saleh Bin Khaled, a longtime football supporter, stood quietly watching the crowded terraces that had once fallen silent during years of war.
"People here are not only celebrating football," he said. "They are celebrating the feeling that life has not completely disappeared despite everything Yemen has endured."
He said the return of cheering crowds, songs and packed stadiums reminded many Yemenis of the country they remembered before conflict consumed daily life.
"For a few hours, people felt hope instead of fear," he added. ■
