Juba National Stadium. (File photo: Courtesy).

South Sudan’s representatives to the continental competitions have cried out over the lack of home ground they were drawn against Sudanese counterparts in CAF interclub tournaments.  

Tuesday’s draw of the 2023/24 season of the Total Energies CAF Champions League and Confederation Cup preliminary stages indicates that the four South Sudanese and Sudanese clubs have been coincidentally drawn against each other out of over 100 clubs from about 50 member Associations.

Al-Salam FC Bor will square off with Sudanese giants Al-Hilal FC Omdurman in the CAF champions league, while El-Merreikh FC Juba will go against Hamidou Ali Nhod of Sudan in the CAF confederation cup. The preliminary fixtures will be played in late August.

Meanwhile, it is worth mentioning that the South Sudanese teams have no standard home ground approved by CAF as Juba stadium is still on renovation. War-torn Sudan is also not in a position to host the games.

On Monday, Al-Salam FC Head Coach Mr. Mangong Gai said the issue of the home ground it will remain as a big problem, although his side are ready to try their luck.

He added that the only money they currently have is about 20 thousand US dollars that they received from the national football governing body SSFA.

He said they will likely use the money to hire a stadium although it will not be enough.

“When we won the league, SSFA has given us 20 thousand USD and that is the only money we have now,” he said in an interview with Eye Radio.

“We are struggling to mobilize more, we as Salaam Bor FC we supposed to use Juba Stadium but now is uncompleted, so we may play our two games in the opponent stadium and we may use that fund for hiring the stadium,” Gai said.

On his part, the Secretary-General of El-Mereikh FC Juba said their aspiration to be the first team to play at the under-construction Juba International Stadium is now in vain.

He told Eye Radio they will now be forced to choose the closest country to their opponent.

“We were hoping to play our home game at Juba stadium as we played our international game in this stadium on date fifth December 2018,” he said.

“But this never happened according to our expectation. Our hope was to be the first team to play in after renovation, but it is never the case.”

“Now is according to the draw to direct you, you have chosen the country near to your opponent, this is the situation we are in and is too difficult to us,” Kamal said.

On Monday, the South Sudan Football Association has reminded the two team yesterday about the CAF registrations that will end on the 31st this month.

In a statement seen by Eye Radio, SSFA urged the two clubs to make sure all the requirements are met, and the registration process is completed to avoid any issues with CAF.