The best football teams from Sudan will play in the league in Rwanda
This season, three Sudanese clubs will join the Rwandan league in an attempt to continue competing as the ongoing unrest in their nation makes regular sports impossible.
The worst displacement catastrophe in the world has been caused by the war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in Sudan since April 2023, which has resulted in over 150,000 deaths and about 12 million displaced persons.
This year, after Sudan’s army retook the capital Khartoum, those who fled when the crisis broke out have begun to return. However, the city’s two largest clubs will continue to play in exile, their outdated infrastructure severely damaged.
Al Hilal and Al Merrikh were permitted to play in the league of Mauritania, which is on the opposite side of the continent, last season. This allowed them to continue playing and maintaining their club structures.
They now have authorization to play in Rwanda’s league this season, together with Al Ahli Wad Madani, according to the Rwanda Football Association.
A mini-tournament was held in July to determine who would play in continental competition in the 2025–2026 season between Al Hilal and Al Merrikh, who have won all but four of the titles since Sudan’s league was established in 1965.
The eight-team competition was held in Ad-Damer, about 430 kilometers from Khartoum, and Atbara, 320 kilometers north of the city. Al Hilal and Al Merrikh dominated once more, while Al Ahli Wad Madani came in third.
The request to play in neighboring Rwanda stems from the fact that a regular league is not feasible due to the ongoing conflict.
Al Hilal’s 4-1 aggregate victory over Police of Kenya has guaranteed them a spot in the group stage of this season’s African Champions League. They hosted the “home” leg of their second-round match in Benghazi on Friday, winning 3-1.
Sudan’s national team has also used Libya as a base; despite not playing at home since March 2023, they will participate in the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco at the end of the year.
