The match between Iran and the Yemen teams on Monday (tomorrow) in the Asian Cup will be fraught with great contradictions between the ambitions of the two teams, due to the political confrontations between the two states in the last few years.
The championship which will be hosted by the UAE until early February, is going to witness an interesting match between the Islamic Republic of Iran, the strong candidate for the title, and Yemen which seeks for a first honorable participation in the AFC Cup.
Iran has started the tournament as a candidate to win a fourth title in the history after the 1968, 1972 and 1976 trilogy, when the number of participants did not exceed six teams. Yemen also benefited from raising the number of participants to 24 teams to participate in the first continental competition in its history after the unity between the two states of Yemen in the early nineties.
The game has some political backgrounds. Yemen has witnessed a conflict since 2014 between forces loyal to President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and supported by a Saudi-led coalition and Houthi rebels close to Iran. The conflict has caused the worst humanitarian crisis, according to the United Nations, and has put more than 14 million people on the verge of famine, leading to the deaths of about 10,000 people.
