Morocco and Senegal style: Al-Merrikh escalates the Sudanese league title dispute to CAS
The title is up for grabs between Al-Hilal and Al-Merrikh
Al-Merrikh will take their dispute over last season's Sudanese league title to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), echoing the famous Morocco and Senegal case in the final of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, due to be resolved at the end of this November.
Al-Merrikh had lost 0-1 to Al-Hilal in the Sudanese league's top-of-the-table clash last July. The Reds then filed an official protest, claiming the participation of some naturalised players in Al-Hilal's ranks was illegal.
The appeals committee considered the case, deemed Al-Hilal the losing side in the clash and awarded the title to Al-Merrikh.
Then came the twist. Al-Hilal announced earlier on Tuesday that the appeals committee of the Sudanese federation had ruled in favour of accepting the review request submitted by the club, overturning the previous decision that had awarded the points of the clash to Al-Merrikh and crowning the blue side champions.
Al-Merrikh responded with a statement on their Facebook account, rejecting the latest decision and vowing to take the case to CAS.
The text of Al-Merrikh's statement was as follows:
"Al-Merrikh Sports Club announces its categorical rejection of the decision of the newly formed appeals committee, which ruled in favour of accepting the examination request submitted by the other club, and overturning the previous decision that ruled Al-Merrikh was entitled to the Premier League title. It thereby affirms its commitment to all its rights and gains, and its rejection of any measures that detract from them.
The decision raises the board's astonishment, especially since the previous appeals committee did not merely issue its decision in Al-Merrikh's favour, but praised in its reasoning the appeal submitted by the club, and established this explicitly in its records, which is the matter that led the Sudanese federation to make amendments to the players' status regulations based on the committee's conclusion in handling the case. This makes the reversal of that decision a subject of legal questioning.
The question marks around the latest decision increase, given that the club received an official notification from the federation stating that the case had been transferred to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), based on the complaint submitted by the other club under number A/12688. This raises fundamental questions about the legal and procedural basis for reconsidering the case before the appeals committee, after the parties were notified that the dispute had been transferred to the international court.
Based on all of this, and in light of the latest decision, the board of directors of Al-Merrikh Club has made up its mind and decided to escalate the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), and to proceed with all necessary legal measures, relying on the club's expertise and its previous experiences before the court, and drawing on specialised legal competencies, in defence of its right to the title until a final decision is issued.
In this regard, the board, the club's fans, its figures, its stars, its media and all its sectors send a clear message to the Sudanese Football Federation, that Al-Merrikh is a popular and leading club, with its history, its standing and its extensive base inside and outside Sudan, and therefore it will not accept any infringement of its rights or detraction from its capabilities.
The federation must adhere to its responsibilities in managing the competition with fairness, ethics and neutrality, in addition to applying the regulations without discrimination or selectivity.
We reaffirm in the strongest terms that Al-Merrikh will not stand idly by in the face of any measures that affect its rights, and will not accept the imposition of a fait accompli upon it or the tampering with its gains, and will confront that with all available legal and institutional means.
To Al-Merrikh's loyal fans, the board affirms that the club's rights are not subject to bargaining or forfeiture, and that it is proceeding along the path of the law until the end, and those behind us have been a complete support, and the pledge between us is that we shall never back down.
