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Football fansAFCONAFCONRSFSFARSFSFASFAYour browser does not support the element. usually dread a nil-nil draw. Not so the Sudanese who watched their national team’s goalless game against Angola in November. The result qualified Sudan for the next Africa Cup of Nations (), which kicks off in Morocco in December 2025. The team danced and sang in celebration.Reaching is impressive. Sudan won in 1970, but has appeared only rarely since then. This time it beat some of Africa’s strongest sides, such as Ghana, a remarkable feat for a country in the grip of civil war. Perhaps 150,000 people have been killed and more than 11m displaced in fighting between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces () since April 2023.Football was one casualty. The Sudan Football Association () disbanded the professional league when the war began. As the advanced, some clubs found their stadiums looted. Many players and staff fled abroad.International help let Sudan play on. The found sanctuary in Saudi Arabia, which provided a training base for players to keep fit, though the women’s team, established in 2021, has not been included. Libya, which hosted the match against Angola in Benghazi, allowed clubs to each sign two Sudanese footballers outside a quota for foreign players. The side has used the stadium in Benghazi free of charge. Thousands of supporters, many of them Sudanese refugees, have turned up to matches.But the biggest factor in Sudan’s unlikely success is canny recruitment. In 2023 the appointed a Ghanaian manager, Kwesi Appiah. He brought together footballers from Sudanese clubs with those in the diaspora. They praise him for motivating them to win on behalf of those at home. He may be crowned coach of the year by the Confederation of African Football in Marrakesh on December 16th.The team now hopes to reach the World Cup for the first time in Sudan’s history. It currently tops its qualification group. Football cannot heal the pain of war—but it can provide some joy.
