2024 CHAN: The 'winning losers': Sudanese footballers have done what politicians have failed to achieve (Feature by Mohamed Osman Adam, PANA correspondent)
Port Sudan, Sudan (PANA) - Friday, the 29th of August 2025, was still a good day for Sudanese football fans, even if pride, dignity, a sense of hope and belonging are mixed with thunders of gunships, and pain of loss.
It was true that on the other side of the Jannus face, in some different parts of the country, yet another bloody day swept the civilian population trapped between warring sides in Darfur, Kordofan and beyond, in a war that has been going on since April 2023.
But it was amid the thick smoke of high death toll, civilian displacement, hunger, child abuse and mass rape, wailing of widows and hate speech, that a window of hope was wide open by the performance of the Sudanese football team.
This was a youthful blend representing all corners of the country, including from areas most affected by the war: Khartoum, Kordofan, Darfur and central Sudan.
Out of the plumes of smoke and clouds of dust out of the war inferno, a gentle breeze of fresh hope sweeps faces.
For over a month, people lived in hope; Facebook, WhatsApp, X, and TikTok platforms were for a while experiencing something other than hate speech and name calling.
They were now chewing and relishing a piece of good news: the Sudanese national football team had reached the semi-finals of the 2024 TotalEnergies CAF African Nations Championship (CHAN), the competition that is open to only players plying their trade at home, not professionals outside the continent. It raised hope and flushed out, even if temporarily, the scene of war and killing off their screens. The tournament was co-hosted by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
The squad of local players, digging their passage in the football arenas, bypassing the muscled African football legendary teams, the likes of Nigeria, Algeria and Senegal, raised hopes to unparalleled pinnacles.
They beat mighty Algeria 4-2 on penalties in the quarter-finals, a country that has produced the likes of Ryad Mahrez, and Rabah Madjer.
This followed an impressive streak of success at the group stage. The Falcons of Jediane topped Group D. In fact, they never lost a single match. They beat the powerful Nigerians, the land of Victor Osimhen and Jay-jay Okocha, 4-0, held Senegal, the land of sleek Mpala, Sadio Mane, to a draw 0-0.
But alas! They succumbed to Madagascar in the race for the final berth. The Falcons of Jediane lost 1-0, a goal they conceded four minutes to the end of extra-time.
Then came another clash with Senegal, holder of the trophy from the last CHAN, for the bronze medal. And “it was the penalty kick-outs” that failed the Sudanese squad, the trainer of the team, Ghanaian Kwesi Appiah, asserted.
The 29th of August was a sad day, as the team lost to Senegal 4-2 on penalties after the match ended 1-1 after regulation time. Surprisingly, it was received in a calm, reconciliatory tone.
True, there was little jubilation or hooray by the millions, especially the youth. But still, it has revived some sort of self-esteem: clinging to a ray of hope, sports and football in particular.
The narrative was now going this way: while the warring parties are sending hails of fire on each other and producing tragedies among civilians and bereaved families, the Sudanese national football team scored goal after goal, and achieved victories sending jubilation to the afflicted population.
“We were overwhelmed by the countless messages of encouragement and congratulations. Clearly People were happy,” Abu Bakar El Mahdi, the squad’s administrative director, told the media from Kampala, Uganda.
It is a dialectical situation of some sort. While politicians have failed to blend the cultural and ethnic diversity of the country, with over 50 tribal groups, Ghanaian coach Appiah was able to blend this same diversity and produced a coherent, tight and united team.
It was a youthful team that reflected the motto widely associated with the French novel of Alexandre Dumas, Three Musketeers: “one for all. all for one.”
At a time, Sudanese are clearly divided into two camps, and with a high level of hate speech and reports of killing on the basis of ethnicity, people are clearly lined behind the national team. For once there is no mention of the ethnic or tribal affiliations of members of the national squad in social media.
Though not prominent in the international sport arena, the country has over 40 news websites and on-line news services. Still not a single one has publicised ethnicity or hate speech, regarding the members of the national team, whereas it suffices to mention just the name an individual affiliated to the sides of the war and social media would come out boiling with rebukes and bullying based on annexation of the name to this or that imagined ethnic or tribal grouping.
Not only that. While opposition to the government would question even the national nature of the army, diverse and far away from tribalism as it may seem, it has been reported nowhere that the national team is being questioned for ethnicity. It has surpassed the dividing line and united, at least overtly, the national feeling.
If any victory scored by the national team could serve as a starter upon which people could be united, then there is a ray of hope that the current situation could be overcome.
As expressed by coach Appiah after the loss to Senegal, "Today you were heroes, you put up a good fight up to the final whistle. Penalty shoot-outs are a matter of luck. Your performance was good; I am happy with the levels we have reached now.’’
The national football squad has succeeded in showing the bright side of the Jannus face, and hopefully it would keep the momentum and show politicians the way forward.
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