A shot of the Sudanese players praying for the souls of the revolution’s martyrs in their exit match against Egypt in the African Cup of Nations was not the first one highlighting the role of sports in the revolutionary movement.
AlTaghyeer: Abdullah Brer
The Sudanese National Team’s players had earlier rejected popular calls made earlier by the Sudanese public to forfeit the meeting in the African Cup of Nations preferring to send a message to the world about the violations of the coup regime.
The shot of the Sudanese NT players in prayer found a great interaction on social media, and the receiving wide support among the Sudanese fans.
Sport has proven that it is inseparable from politics and the state of the country since the start of the December revolution in Sudan.
On March 19, 2018, the country’s sports fans and football players relayed messages to the world detailing what was happening in Sudan.
At the time, the National Security Agency had preemptively confiscated revolutionary banners and banners denouncing the regime of former President Omar al-Bashir from the crowd during the meeting between Sudanese al-Merreikh club and the Algerian Mouloudia in the Arab Championship.
Eyewitnesses said at the time that the security forces of the ousted president lurked among the crowd in the stands in an attempt to control the situation.
The Roar from the Stands
What the security forces had tried to foil in the stands was met with dismal failure after the al-Merreikh fans started chanting the famous Tas’gut Bas (Just fall, that is all) chant from the stands and within the whole world’s earshot.
Sudanese al-Merreikh players returned their display of solidarity with their fans in another way, after the trio of Mohamed Abdel Rahman, Bakri al-Madina and Salah Nimr celebrated in their own revolutionary way.
The trio fell to the ground to denounce the killing of revolutionary martyr Abdel Azim in Omdurman at the time.
The duo of Khaled Al-Naa’saan and Seif Terry also appeared to put their shirts on their noses, mimicking the famous shots of demonstrators moving through clouds of tear gas being.
First Appearance
The Al-Merreikh – Mouloudia meeting also witnessed the unprecedented, where for the first time, fans of Al-Merreikh’s local rival, Al-Hilal, stood and rooted for their eternal rival, after the supporters of the two teams united in a purely national epic.
The Al-Hilal fans, during the onset of the December revolution, went out in a mass demonstration after the team’s meeting with the Tunisian African in the African Champions League. The “Blue Wave” crowd chanted anti-regime slogans at the time.
The club’s fans’ association – colloquially called “Ultras” – sent a strong message by deliberately not showing up to support their team against the Ghanaian side Asante Kotoko, in denouncement of the killing of peaceful demonstrators.
The Sudanese Al-Merreikh Ultras followed in the steps of their rivals and did the same during one of their team’s meetings.
The Merreikhabis raised a Tifo (logo) in solidarity with the Sudanese Professionals Association, which led the revolutionary movement.
Huge banner appeared commemorating what seemed to be a doctor and an engineer, in reference to the role of the gathering of professionals (who are mostly composed of doctors and engineers) in igniting the revolutionary movement.
