Yemen, Bhutan and Guam: Being poor in the richest sport

Doha, ironically, is also the epicentre of the corruption storm that FIFA finds itself in. According to estimates, FIFA earn approximately $5.7 billion in revenues from the World Cup. They claim that more than 70 percent of it goes straight back into the development of the game; expenses to prepare for the next edition and providing funds to teams like Yemen to help them in their qualifying campaign and assist them in developing playing fields and developing grassroots.

But senior FIFA officials have been accused of using the money meant for football development as slush funds, distributing money to soccer officials in each of FIFA’s 209 member nations in exchange for their votes during FIFA presidential elections.

The impact of corruption within FIFA is visible on teams like Yemen, who despite all odds stacked against them hope to make the cut for football’s flagship event.

With the country involved in a bloody war with Saudi Arabia, Yemen’s national team head Husam Al Sanabani said they were left with no other option but to travel by sea. It’s a treacherous stretch of water that has already been braved by thousands since the war began. Under normal circumstances, a flight from Yemen to Doha would take roughly two hours. But the long detour meant they first had to undertake the 13-hour boat journey to Djibouti, followed by a five-hour flight from the tiny African nation to Doha.

Yemen travel by sea

“We had three options. Flights were not possible as the airports are shut. It was unsafe to cross the border by road as there is constant firing. So the only option left for us was to travel by sea. It was a dangerous route and the players were brave enough to accept our suggestion,” Al Sanabani told The Indian Express over phone from Doha.

Ranked 165, Yemen qualified for the group stage following a win over Pakistan in the preliminary round in March. Since then, their Czech coach Miroslav Soukup has not been with the team and the players had hardly kicked a ball until their training session in Doha last week. One of their key players, Abdul Al-Jarshi, could not join the team as he had to ensure his family was at a safer location.

“Everything is destroyed in the war. The grounds, the domestic league…everything. Apart from the match against Pakistan, the players have hardly played this year,” Soukup said from Doha. “At my first meeting with them here, I have told them to focus only on the positives. There are few, but what else could I tell them? Football’s not bigger than life and death, is it? But look at these players, they know that if they win, people in Yemen will be happy. At least some good news in these distressing times,” he added, voice trembling.

They are risking something by playing – their already stagnating careers, families and lives. Yet, they are chasing an almost impossible dream: to be a part of the 32 countries that will grace the World Cup finals in Russia in 2018. The soul of the beautiful game may have been tarnished with the recent exposes but for these tiny nations, the cup still means a world.

Starting Thursday, 40 Asian countries will begin their battle for the four confirm places and one playoff berth for the 2018 World Cup. These are the teams with no hopes to qualify. Still, deep down, these underdogs and outsiders of the football world continue to believe that this time, they will make it.

Minnow magic

While the Yemenis will be hoping for a fairytale ending to their story, Bhutan scripted theirs earlier this year, with a roll of a dice. For long, they were derided as perennial losers. They had been inactive for 18 months before the qualifier against Sri Lanka in March. And as per FIFA’s rankings, they were the worst team in the world at that point. Understandably, few gave them hope of being more than whipping boys going into that match. Even their own supporters had modest expectations for their opener against the Island nation, a side against whom they had never beaten.

But the players surprised even themselves when they defied odds and won their first leg in Sri Lanka by a solitary goal. Five days later, preparing for their home leg, they were aiming for the unthinkable. A win or a draw in the second leg would take them to the group stages of the qualifiers.

Roll of the dice for luck

Tantalizingly close to their goal, the players sought all help they could get. So, a couple of hours before the return leg in Thimpu, the players of their national team huddled inside a monastery. A monk blessed each one of them before they sipped holy water from a brass jug. Then, as per the tradition, the dice was rolled. Odd numbers meant good luck. Even were bad.

It is believed that several Buddhists, including the Dalai Lama, consult the dice to make important decisions. “It was unnerving. Almost as if I was deciding the fate of our team before we even stepped on the field,” Bhutan captain Karma Tshering, who was assigned the task to throw the dice, had said back then. “You have to throw it thrice and hope for the best.”

Tshering said he threw three threes, a tally of nine. He smiled, so did his teammates. A couple of hours later, the entire country joined them. Tshering, the country’s only professional player, was on target once again as Bhutan stunned Sri Lanka for the second time and guide his team to the group stages for the first-time ever. “This is what dreams are made of. We may not make it to the main tournament, but this is good enough. The qualifiers are like the World Cup for us,” Tshering said.

Bhutan are once again tipped to be the whipping boys of their group, where they are clubbed with heavyweights China, Qatar, Hong Kong and Maldives. But once again, they are keen to prove the naysayers wrong.

A first for Guam

Like Bhutan, another tiny nation is hoping to take a giant stride during this campaign. Guam, a US territory with barely 200,000 inhabitants, will host its first-ever World Cup qualifier this Thursday when they host Turkmenistan. Five days later, on June 16, India will travel to the remote nation, before Guam travel to Iran in September. The last time they faced the Asian giants, Guam crashed to an embarrassing 19-0 defeat. That was in 2000, the country’s first and only World Cup qualifying campaign.

And it was also during a vastly different era. Or so they insist. Ranked 176 in the world, they just seem happy to be hosting a World Cup qualifier. “To be honest, not many thought this could happen. To be able to host the World Cup qualifiers is an amazing thing for this country. You can sense the excitement. The tickets are sold out, the radio guys are talking about it and television channels are hyping it up. It’s a momentous occasion for this country,” White told this paper.

White speaks confidently of his players’ abilities. Most are semi-professionals. Their captain Jason Cunliffe, a defender who played for LA Galaxy, is a banker. His routine is vastly different to a captain of any other national team. The 31-year-old rises at 4am to go to the gym, spends a long day working at a bank, and then joins his teammates to train in the evening.

“They are extremely hard working,” White says of his wards. “Most of them go to the US for college education and continue playing football there. So they are technically good. But we have a lot of local boys coming up as well, which is good for us. Hopefully, we will be able to show how far we’ve come during this campaign.”

Geographical problems

ASIA’S troubled geographical problems, too, add a fascinating dimension to the qualifiers. On Monday, Palestine were forced to shift their qualifier against Saudi Arabia after the oil-rich country cited ‘exceptional reasons’ for their inability to travel to West Bank, where the match was scheduled to be held. All checkpoints to enter West Bank are operated by Israel. The frosty relationship between the two nations meant that the match will instead be played at Jeddah.

Yemen, meanwhile, find themselves in another quandary. While they somehow managed to sneak out of the country, the team does not know how they will return. After their match against North Korea on June 11, Yemen will play another ‘home’ match in Doha against Philippines on June 16. They have reserved hotel bookings till June 22, and hope to return home at the first available opportunity by then.

“We hope there will ceasefire by then and we will be able to fly back. If not, then we will have to return the same way we came,” Al Sanabani said.