Al-Merrikh SC - Sudan

One of the giants of African football. Founded in 1908 in the city of Omdurman (on the left bank of the Nile, just opposite Khartoum, the capital), Al-Merrikh SC have won both the Sudanese title and Sudan Cup 19 times each. In 1989 they became the only Sudanese club ever to win a major continental trophy when they lifted the African Cup Winners’ Cup, defeating Bendel United FC of Nigeria. Their rivalry with neighbours Al-Hilal Club is one of the fiercest in Africa, with the two clubs separated only by Al-Ardha Street in Omdurman itself (Al-Merrikh means ‘Mars’ and Al-Hilal means ‘Crescent Moon’ – so this is a rivalry on a planetary scale!)

More recently, though, the club has become symbolic of something larger than football. Because of the ongoing war in Sudan, Al-Merrikh have been forced to temporarily play league football in Rwanda. Recently they have been managed by former Newcastle United F.C. midfielder, and now Hartlepool boss, Lee Clark.

Their badge is dominated by red and yellow. The red reflects both the club’s name (Mars) and the club’s nickname, “The Red Castle” (their ground), but the centrepiece is the yellow star. Across the region, stars often symbolise guidance, hope and national aspiration. On the flag of South Sudan, the same golden star is often referred to as the “Bethlehem Star”, representing a guiding light leading people forward. It fits Al-Merrikh perfectly. This is a club that, for many Sudanese, represents their efforts to navigate forwards through the turmoil of recent decades. In older Arabian mythology, Mars was linked to harshness, war and the unforgiving nature of the desert itself. There is something strangely appropriate about this club, forged in political upheaval and civil conflict, carrying the name of the red planet.

The club itself began life in 1908 as Al-Masalma Sporting Club, founded by students from the Al-Masalmah district studying at Gordon Memorial College in Omdurman. This suddenly English-sounding name matters because it reveals a story about the very origins of the Sudanese state.

During the 1880s, Sudan was engulfed by the Mahdist uprising, a massive religious and nationalist revolt led by Muhammad Ahmad al-Mahdi against Egyptian and Ottoman rule. The rebellion culminated in the siege of Khartoum and the death of Charles George Gordon in 1885. Gordon was an experienced soldier who had fought in Crimea and led a unit of Chinese irregulars to put down the Taiping Rebellion. He was ordered to go to Khartoum and evacuate Westerners ahead of the Mahdist advance. Overstepping his orders, he first evacuated the civilians but then remained with a small group of soldiers to try and negotiate with al-Mahdi. However, these talks failed and al-Mahdi laid siege to Gordon and his men inside Khartoum. Gordon organised the resistance and held out for a year before the Sudanese forces finally took the city, killing Gordon in the process. It was one of the defining imperial disasters of the Victorian age. Al-Mahdi himself died shortly after his victory and was buried at the UNESCO site of the Mahdi’s Tomb.

The Mahdists, now led by the Khalifa, one of the Mahdi’s most loyal followers, found themselves in a strategically important position – by controlling the upper Nile they could exert pressure on Egypt, technically in Ottoman hands at the time but heavily influenced by the British. Doing that put pressure on Britain’s access to the Red Sea through Suez – which was always something of a red line for the British. They would fight and die to protect it.

The British response came through Herbert Kitchener (the same fellow who was later brought out of retirement during the First World War to lead the recruitment campaign – it is his moustached face on the famous “Your Country Needs You” posters).

In 1898, after constructing military railways across the desert and advancing south with overwhelming firepower, Kitchener defeated the Mahdist forces at the Battle of Omdurman. Sudan then became part of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan under effective British control.

But empire was not built only with armies. It was also built with schools, railways, administration and sport. Gordon Memorial College was one of the flagship institutions of Kitchener’s reforms. Opened in 1902 and named after Gordon himself, it was designed to train a new Sudanese administrative and professional class. Engineering, surveying, teaching, law and clerical work were all taught there. The British brought with them the working man’s game of football, already deeply embedded in industrial Britain by this point. Like so many clubs across Africa and Asia, Al-Merrikh emerged from that collision between colonial education systems and local identity.

Over time the club evolved far beyond those origins. Football in Sudan became a vehicle for civic pride, nationalism and mass identity. Al-Merrikh were no longer simply a team formed by students under colonial reforms. They became representatives of Omdurman, then representatives of Sudan itself. Their victories in continental competition carried enormous significance for a country often overlooked internationally except in times of famine, war or political upheaval.

Even the city of Omdurman carries layers of symbolism. It was the capital of the Mahdist State after Khartoum fell. It was here that the Mahdi’s revolutionary Islamic state ruled Sudan before the British reconquest. The streets around Al-Merrikh’s stadium were once at the centre of one of the great anti-colonial movements of the nineteenth century. Then, a generation later, those same streets helped produce one of Africa’s oldest football clubs.

The city has grown since these colonial days into the beating heart of an independent and powerful Sudan. Souq Omdurman is one of the largest street markets in the world and shows how important the city, Sudan’s second largest, is for trade and culture – with the River Nile and a series of important roads intersecting within the city. Tragically, the market is currently closed and, in large parts, gutted by the recent civil war. But the spirit of Omdurman will return – the essential ingredients for success have not left.

While the football team has had to pack up and leave for foreign leagues, the guiding star of Bethlehem will surely bring the team of Mars back to its Red Castle before long.

They have a nation to make proud.