Al-Merreikh SC

This article is about football club based in Omdurman, Sudan. For football club based in Port Sudan, Sudan, see Al-Merreikh Al-Thagher.

Al-Merreikh SC

Full name	Al-Merreikh Sporting Club
Nickname(s)	Al-Zaeem (The Leader), The Red Devils, Al-Ahmar Alwahhag
Founded	November 14, 1927- Initially as Al-Masalam in 1908
Ground	Al Merreikh Stadium Omdurman, Sudan (Capacity: 43,645)
Chairman	Gamal Alwaly
Manager	Hossam El-Badry
League	Sudan Premier League
2007/08	Sudan Premier League, 1st
Home colours Away colours

Al-Merreikh Sporting Club (Arabic: نادي المريخ السوداني‎) is a Sudanese football club based in Omdurman, Sudan. Their home stadium is Al Merreikh Stadium. Which is also known as The Red Castle. Al-Merreikh is one of the most ancient and strongest football club in Africa. El-Merreikh have been crowned with the Sudanese Premier League title 17 times. Beside, El-Merreikh have an unbreakable record at least in the next 15 years with 20 titles of winning the cup .There are maybe 23 million supporters who support El-Merreikh in Sudan.^{[citation needed]}

Name and meaning

Al-Merreikh is the Arabic word for planet Mars. They were the first club to have this name in Sudan and Arab world.

Leagues

Primarily, Al-Merreikh competes in the Sudanese Premier league, Sudan's top football league. Based on the club's end-of-season standing, it competes in the African CAF tournaments including African Champions League and/or African Confederation Cup.

Al-Merreikh Stadium

Al-Merreikh Stadium Works on the stadium first started under the club’s chairman Mr. Fahmy Suliman who appointed a young engineer Mr Abdelmonim Mustafa to structure a map to build a modern stadium. The engineer who is a known Merreikh supporter handed a piece of art inspired by Moscow stadium in Russia and he did the whole job for free.

The stadium was opened over 2 stages. The first stage was opened in 1962 before the construction work finished to host some governmental celebrations and that was by match between Almourada and Alhilal won by the former.

The second stage was completed 2 years later and the stadium was officially opened by the Sudanese Prime Minister Sirelkhatim Alkhalifa on Monday the 30th of November 1964 to be the first club with own stadium in Africa.

In 2003, Al-Merreikh chairman Mr. Gamal Alwali and his board decided to upgrade the stadium and increase its capacity to the current 42,000 seats with costs of more than 10 million dollars and when opened in 2009 the stadium became one of the best in the African continent and is now the home stadium of Sudan national team.

Upgrades are still taking place and an Olympic swimming pool is currently under construction next to the stadium with a view of building a full sports city.

Al-Merreikh daily sports newspaper

Al-Merreikh FC daily newspaper was first published in 1965 in Khartoum. As of today, it is the oldest sport newspaper in Sudan.^[1]

Achievements

Al-Merreikh was the winner of the first official cup in Sudan (1934)

• Sudan Premier League: 18 ^[2]

1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1982, 1985, 1990, 1993, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2008,2011

• Sudan Cup: 20 ^[3]

1963, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1996, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010

• Khartoum League: 17

1953-54, 1955-56, 1961-62, 1965-66, 1967-68, 1971-72, 1972-73, 1978-79, 1980-81, 1982-83, 1984-85, 1985-86, 1990-91, 1991-92, 1992-93, 1995-96, 1996-97

• CECAFA Clubs Cup: 2

1986, 1994

• African Cup Winners' Cup: 1

1989

• CAF Confederation Cup: 0

2007 - Runner-up

2008 - Group-stage

Performance in CAF competitions

Participated 30 times in all CAF championships

• CAF Champions League: 6 appearances

(1 time Group Stage - 3 times Second Round - 2 times First Round)

2001 - Second Round

2002 - Second Round

2003 - First Round

2009 - Group Stage

2010 - Second Round

2011 - First Round

• CAF Confederation Cup: 6 appearances

(1 time as Finalist - 1 time Quarter-Finals - 1 time Intermediate Round - 1 time Preliminary Round)

2004 - Preliminary Round

2005 - Quarter-Finals

2006 - Intermediate Round

2007 - Final

2008 - Group Stage

2010 - Second Round of 16

• African Cup of Champions Clubs: 12 appearances

(2 times withdrew - 5 times First Round - 4 times Second Round - 1 time Quarter-Finals)

1971 - Second Round

1972 - withdrew in First Round

1973 - Second Round

1975 - Quarter-Finals

1976 - Second Round

1978 - Second Round

1979 - withdrew in First Round

1983 - First Round

1986 - First Round

1991 - First Round

1994 - First Round

1998 - First Round

• African Cup Winners' Cup: 10 appearances

(1 time Winner - 2 times Semi-Finals - 1 time Quarter-Finals - 3 times Second Round - 3 times First Round)

1984 - Second Round

1985 - First Round

1989 - Cup Winner

1990 - Semi-Finals

1992 - Semi-Finals

1993 - Quarter-Finals

1995 - Second Round

1997 - First Round

1999 - First Round

2000 - Second Round

Current squad (2010-2011)

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Essam El-Hadary 2 DF Najmaddin Abdalla 3 DF Mousa El Tayeb 4 FW Jonas Sakuwaha 5 DF Serges Wawa 6 DF Tariq Mukhtar 7 DF Ahmed El-Basha 8 FW Kelechi Osunwa 9 MF Badr Eldin Eldod Abdalla (Vice-Captain) 11 MF Raji Abdel-Aati 12 MF Mosaab Omer 13 DF Assim Abdeen 14 MF Balla Jabir

No. Position Player 15 MF Hamad Abbas 16 GK Yaseen Yousuf 17 MF Karim Eddafi 18 MF Nasreldin Elshigail 19 FW Mohamed Osman Hanno 20 FW Rémi Adiko 21 GK Mohammed Kamal 23 MF Saeed Mustafa 24 FW Faisal Agab (Captain) 26 DF Mohammed Ali El Khider 27 FW Haytham Tambal 28 DF Hassan Gezira 30 FW Mohamed Magaddam

Staff

Football sector Administrator

• Emad El-Nahhas

Current Coaches

• Hossam El-Badry
• Farooq Jabra
• Willi Kronhardt
• Tariq Sulieman

Team Doctor

• Dr. Hafiz Abdulgadir Suhail

Club previous managers

• Mansour Ramadan
• John Manang
• Marco
• Ahmed Rifaat
• Horest
• Branco Tucak
• Arnest Roder
• Senad Kreso
• Dušan
• Ion Motroc
• Mahmoud Saad
• Otto Pfister
• Michael Krüger
• Rodion Gačanin
• Mohammed Abdallah Mazda
• Jose Luis Carbone

Notable former players

Paulo Roberto Machado Alaa Abdul-Zahra Saad Attiya Boucader Diallo Lassana Fané Boubacar Koné Obinna Auko Effosa Eguakon Endurance Idahor Stephen Worgu Alua Gaseruka

Jean Lomami Cheikh Diop James Joseph (footballer) Kamal Abdalwahab Majid Abu-Jinzeer Boraey Ahmed Al-Basheer Ibrahoma Al-Masoudia Hamid Braima Hassan Dahdooh Hammori Sami Izzaddin Ammar Khalid

Amir Damar Koku Bushra Wahba Jean-Paul Abalo Mehdi Ben Dhifallah Haytham Mrabet Abdelkarim Nafti Lawrence Segawa Ali Al-Nono Zacharia Simukonda Elijah Tana

Presidential history

Al-Merreikh have had numerous presidents over the course of history, none of them was owner of the club, although the land on which the current stadium was owned by Abdularahman Shakhour, some of the presidents have been honorary players. Currently Gamal Alwali is the chairman. Here is a complete list of Al-Merrikh club presidents from 1927 until the present day.

Khaled Abdullah Sulaiman Atabani Mohammed Khair Ali Mohammed Ali Bakhiet Yousif Omer Agha Mohammed Bashier Fourawy Mohammed Sherrief Ahmed Ishag Shadad Dr. Mohammed Saeed Bayiomy Bashier Hassan Bashier

Ibrahim Mohammed Ahmed Fahmy Sulaiman Yousif Abusamra Abdulrahim Osman Saleh Dr. Mohammed Alfatih Badawy Mohammed Osman Awad Abuzeid Abdulrahman Shakhour Mahadi Alfaki Hassan Abu-ala'ila

Fouad Altoum Abdulaziz Shiddou Khalid Hassan Abbas Abdulhamid Haggoug Mahil Abu Ginna Dr. Tag Alsir Mahgoub Mohammed Eliyas mahgoub Gamal Alwali

Club history

Al-Merreikh was founded as Sport Club of Al-Masalma in late 1908 by pupils from Al-Masalam district in Omdurman and was then renamed as Al-Merreikh Football Club in 1927. The club was the winner of the first Sudanese football championship in 1934, Al-Merreikh wears their original red and yellow kit although the original one had some black. There is a historical rivalry between the two strongest clubs in Sudan, Al-Merreikh and Al-Hilal. Both clubs are based in Omdurman, the old national capital of Sudan with Al-Hilal with the most wins in the Sudan Premier League of the two teams and Al-Merreikh won the most Sudan Cups out of the two teams. The first match between Al-Merreikh and Al-Hilal was in 1934 when Al-Merrikh defeated Al-Hilal 2-0. The two goals scored in the match were scored by Al-Zain Haiba, the Al-Merreikh striker. The match is known historically as The Match of the Green Grass Market, since there were no stadiums at that time and the match was held in the famous square of Omdurman, the national capital of Sudan. During day time the square was used by green grass sellers and football matches were played in the afternoons. Today, the match is still very famous and it was the actual start of rivalry between the two very famous Sudanese football clubs

Famous matches

• First Derby : Al-Merreikh 2-0 Al-Hilal - 1934 - The Match of the Green Grass Market (Soog Algash) - Omdurman
• Al-Merreikh 6-2 Al-Hilal - 1948 - Education day cup - Omdurman ^[4]
• Al-Merreikh 7-0 Al-Hilal - 3/09/1955 - Friendly - Khartoum
• Al-Merreikh 3-5 Honvéd - 1956 - Friendly Match - Omdurman ^[5]
• Al-Merreikh 3-1 Asante Kotoko - 1962 - Friendly - Khartoum
• Al-Merreikh 14-1 Alamir - 1966 - Khartoum League - Omdurman ^[6]
• Al-Merreikh 0-0 Egypt national football team - 1979 - Friendly - Khartoum
• Al-Merreikh 2-0 Nigeria national football team - 1988 - Friendly - Khartoum
• Al-Merreikh 2-0 Asante Kotoko - 2007 - Friendly - Khartoum

References

1. ^ Which most of the El Merreikh fans read it or even everyday Source
2. ^ List of winners
3. ^ List of winners
4. ^ Official team page
5. ^ Budapest Honvéd FC
6. ^ Official team page

External links

• Al-Merreikh Official website
• Al-Merreikh Official Newspaper
• Al-Merreikh Network website
• Al-Merreikh Fans website
• Al-Merreikh supporters website(Arabic)
• Club logo