Sport Matters

Not much is known about Eritrean football, largely because the Horn of Africa nation is one of the world's most closed societies. The country's tightly controlled public life and limited access to information have also made it difficult to follow developments in its football. For years, Eritrea was largely absent from international football, and the possibility of players defecting while travelling abroad added to the challenges of sending the national team abroad.  That painful history resurfaced earlier this year when the Red Sea Camels returned to the international stage for the first time in years. After their 2027 Africa Cup of Nations preliminary-round victory over Eswatini in March, seven of the 10 home-based players in the squad reportedly remained in South Africa and sought asylum rather than return to Eritrea.  Now, as Eritrea prepares to face Bafana Bafana in an Afcon Group D qualifier in Cairo on Wednesday, the national team is taking on a distinctly different c...

Mamelodi Sundowns have once again demonstrated that African club football can compete with the best in the world, producing a magnificent 2-1 victory over Saudi Arabian giants Al Ahli at a packed Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Saturday. The victory earned the African champions the FIFA African-Asian-Pacific Cup and sent them into the next phase of the Intercontinental Cup. More importantly, Sundowns' performance was a statement about the quality, ambition and character of African football. Against an Al Ahli side boasting an expensively assembled squad with considerable international experience and high-profile players such as England striker Ivan Toney, Senegal goalkeeper Edouard Mendy and Portugal international Francisco Trincão, Sundowns refused to be intimidated. Sundowns were in charge from the opening minute and never looked like losing despite conceding an own goal via keeper and captain Ronwen Williams. The only time Al Ahli looked dangerous was in the closing minutes, ...

The better-known talking point ahead of Bafana Bafana's opening 2026 World Cup match against Mexico on Thursday, June 11, is that it mirrors the opening fixture of the 2010 tournament. On June 11 that year, South Africa and Mexico kicked off the World Cup at FNB Stadium, with Bafana carrying the hopes of a nation on home soil. But there is another fascinating twist to Thursday's encounter in Mexico City. Forty years ago, current Bafana coach Hugo Broos lined up for Belgium against host nation Mexico in the opening match of the 1986 FIFA World Cup. Played on June 3 at the iconic Estadio Azteca, the match marked the start of a tournament that would become one of football's most memorable spectacles. It is the very same stadium that will host South Africa and Mexico when the 2026 World Cup gets underway. Belgium lost that opening match 2-1 to the hosts, but Broos and his teammates recovered impressively. Led by stars such as Erwin Vandenbergh, they embarked on a remarkable...

Sudan’s improbable march into the knockout stages of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations is already one of the tournament’s most powerful stories. On Saturday, January 3, in Tangier, the Falcons of Jediane face continental heavyweights Senegal in the round of 16, carrying with them not only tactical plans and match-day hopes, but the weight of a nation shattered by war yet unwilling to surrender its dreams. That Sudan even qualified for the Morocco tournament borders on the miraculous. Forced into exile by a brutal civil war that erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the national team has lived up to its falcon moniker by soaring far beyond its broken homeland to survive. Home matches were staged abroad, preparations scattered across foreign soil, including Saudi Arabia, and players lived as displaced men rather than celebrated athletes. Yet, against all odds, Sudan squeezed through Group E as one of the best third-placed teams be...