In the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, after four matches, Sudan sits atop Group B with ten points and a goal difference of +6, leading the group favourites and star-studded Senegal by two points.

The rise of Sudan to the summit of the group, which is anchored on their three victories and one draw in the qualifying series, has been one of the standout stories of the campaign. This is due to two issues of paramount importance in analyzing the context within which this impressive script is being written.

The first, which directly leads to the second, is that Sudan has been at war since April 2023, with over 14,000 killed and 33,000 injured, according to an Al Jazeera report.

Sudan has been ravaged by a conflict between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the government, and like major socio-economic activities, sports activities have ground to a halt.

For a nation whose core national team is formed by players who ply their trade with local clubs Al Hilal and Al Merrikh, the absence of football in the country was going to bite hard, which made the assumption that they would be the whipping boys of Group B a justifiable stance.

The country being at war also meant that even if Sudan were to embark on a national team assignment, they could neither camp nor play their matches at home, which in the African context is a great disservice because home matches are the surest means of getting points.

However, four matches into the tournament, Sudan has yet to lose a game, having played Togo at home, DR Congo at home, Mauritania away, and South Sudan away. In those four matches, Sudan has impressively scored seven goals and conceded just one.

Anchoring the rise of Sudan in international football and bringing hope to a war-ravaged country is Ghana’s very own Kwasi Appiah. Appointed in September 2023, Kwasi Appiah has been an inspirational figure in Sudanese football, using the sport to instil unity and hope in a country reeling from the never-ending excesses of violence.

In a recent interview with Kenyan journalist Collins Okinyo, Kwasi Appiah outlined the two factors serving as building blocks for the recent success of the Sudanese national team, especially in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.

To get the team to buy into his tactics, Kwasi Appiah first had to use the war to unite the people and remind them of how football can be a tool for unity and the need for recognition among the Sudanese players that only they could qualify their team for a World Cup.

“I told them we shouldn’t rely on anybody; we have to rely on ourselves to defend Sudan. I worked on them psychologically and tactically and got them to behave professionally. I also taught them how to behave professionally. I’m now changing their minds on how to do certain things. I’m letting them know the things to do if they want to achieve success professionally and how to get to the top,” he said.

With the players now in the right mentality and pumped for the assignments, Kwasi Appiah had to imbue in them tactical principles that would make them organized and structured, and he is certain that the team has bought into his tactics now.

“Tactically, they have done well to adapt to whatever I show them. They are doing well and are able to adapt easily to things,” he said.

Kwasi Appiah also spoke about the challenge of having to camp outside Sudan and sent a word of gratitude to the Saudi government for their support of the team.

“I’d like to thank the Saudi government for their support. Since the war affected us, they’ve been really helpful. Our major problem has been playing our home games away due to the war. We don’t even know when CAF/FIFA will send us to play our next games. The players have done well so far.

“It is sometimes difficult to get players from Hilal and Merrikh to come. Because of the war, sometimes they want to take care of their families, and you have to understand them. At the end of the day, we get some of the players. I gather all of them in Saudi, and even though we couldn’t get them early, they all came,” he said.

Up next for Kwasi Appiah’s Sudanese team is a home game against second-placed Senegal in March 2025. A win in that game will open a five-point gap between Sudan and Senegal, who are the bookmakers' favourites to advance to the World Cup, which will be co-hosted by the United States of America, Canada, and Mexico.

EK/BB