Sudan coach James Kwesi Appiah has reportedly persuaded the Sudanese Football Association to bring back several of the national team’s established players ahead of the opening matches of the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
The Ghanaian coach is preparing Sudan for a meeting with Ethiopia at the Olympic Stadium in Juba on 25 September, before the team travels to Maputo to face Mozambique four days later.
Appiah’s decision to recall the senior players comes despite a strained relationship between several of the footballers and the Sudanese Football Association.
The players have been involved in a dispute with the federation over unpaid wages, while the association had previously decided to remove them from the national-team set-up.
However, sources cited by the “winwin” website say Appiah has opposed the planned changes and will include the experienced players in his squad for the upcoming qualifiers.
The move represents a reversal of the federation’s previous approach, which followed Sudan’s participation in the 2026 Africa Cup of Nations finals in Morocco.
That tournament was reportedly affected by serious disagreements among members of the squad. The federation subsequently took an unannounced decision to leave some of the senior players out of the national team.
Appiah, who is approaching his fourth year in charge of the “Falcons of Jediane”, is expected to provide the federation with technical arguments for retaining the experienced players.
One of his main arguments is understood to be the timing of the proposed rebuilding process.
Sudan’s domestic competitions have been affected by disruption, while the country’s league has not been running regularly. Appiah believes those circumstances make it difficult to introduce major changes and build an entirely new squad at this stage.
The coach has also reportedly called for the federation to establish a clear objective for the national team.
He wants it to be decided whether Sudan’s priority is qualification for the 2027 finals or whether the current period should instead be treated as a transitional phase designed to develop a new generation of players.
Appiah is also understood to have told the federation that the training camps involving the reserve team over the past several months have not produced enough players capable of immediately replacing the experienced members of the squad.
As a result, he believes Sudan’s chances of reaching the next Africa Cup of Nations finals are stronger if the senior players remain available.
The coach can point to their previous contribution to the national side, with the experienced group having played an important role in Sudan’s qualification for the most recent tournament. Sudan were drawn alongside Angola, Ghana and Niger in that qualifying campaign.
The planned squad is expected to feature a significant number of players from Sudan’s leading clubs, including Al-Hilal, Al-Merreikh, Al-Ahli Madani and Hilal Al-Sahel.
Appiah will also call on Sudanese players currently competing in foreign leagues as he seeks to combine domestic experience with international exposure.
Sudan are expected to begin their preparations with a short training camp once the country’s clubs have completed their matches in the first preliminary round of the African Champions League and Confederation Cup.
The national team will then travel to Juba for the Ethiopia match on 25 September.
Their attention will quickly turn to the second fixture, with the Sudanese delegation scheduled to travel to Maputo to meet Mozambique on 29 September.
The Mozambique fixture will be Sudan’s second match in Group Ten of the qualifying competition.
With Appiah succeeding in securing the return of the senior players, Sudan will enter the qualifiers with a squad built around experience rather than the wholesale changes previously planned by the federation.
The decision could prove significant as Appiah attempts to guide the “Falcons of Jediane” towards another appearance at the Africa Cup of Nations.
