Sudan part ways with coach Velud ahead of AFCON

The Sudan Football Association (SFA) parted ways with national team coach Hubert Velud.

This comes after Sudan’s poor show at the ongoing FIFA Arab Cup 2021 where they lost all the three group matches, conceding 10 goals and scoring none.

Frenchman Velud’s dismissal comes just four weeks before the Falcons of Jediane start their TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations, Cameroon 2021 campaign. Sudan qualified to the continent’s flagship competition for the first time since 2013, and with Ethiopia they are the only two teams from the CECAFA Zone in the impending TotalEnergies AFCON 2021.

The SFA executive committee meeting decided on Sunday to terminate Velud’s contract and appoint local caretaker coach Burhan Tia to handle the team during the upcoming AFCON.

Although Velud, who was appointed coach in January 2020, guided Sudan to qualify for the 2021 AFCON, the team has lately not registered good results.

In the FIFA World Cup qualifiers alongside Morocco, Guinea-Bissau and Guinea, Velud’s team finished bottom of the group with three points from six matches. At the FIFA Arab Cup 2021 they lost 4-0 in the opening match to Algeria, before suffering 5-0 defeat to Egypt and a 1-0 loss to Lebanon.

The new interim coach Burhan Tia has worked in the Sudan Premier League for 26 years. He was also Sudan assistant coach during the 2018 Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) where the_ Falcons of Jediane_ finished third.

The new technical team includes Mubarak Soliman and Mohsen Sayed as assistant coaches. They will have a tough mission of making it to AFCON knockout stage. Sudan are placed in Group D alongside Nigeria, Egypt and Guinea-Bissau.