By Kei Emmanuel Duku
Barely a week to the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying fixture against African reigning and current AFCON 2022 defending champion Senegal, the Bright Stars is considering withdrawing from the competition due to inadequate funding.
The National team needed funding for hiring a stadium for hosting the game, camping of players and facilitation for foreign-based players for camping in Juba.
Augustino Madut, President of the South Sudan Football governing body said that the federation requires at least 80,000$ to hire the stadium needed to host the match between Senegal.
This is apart from the money required by the national team to travel and play against Mauritania National Team on November 21, 2023.
According to the fixtures released by FIFA, the Bright Stars of South Sudan is expected to play against Senegal on November 18, 2023, at home but due to the ongoing construction work in Juba Stadium, the game will be played outside the country as such the stadium has to be hired.
“With only five or six days to travel till now, we are not sure if we going to get tickets, accommodation, and bringing our foreign-based players to the camp in Juba,” Mr. Madut said during a press conference on Friday.
“So, for me as the President, I am not even sure if we will participate in the upcoming fixtures because till now we have a challenge of getting the 80,000 Dollars.”
Currently, the National Team has started a non-residual training in Buluk National Team training ground with players based in Juba and other states under the management of the new Coach Nicola Dupuis who signed a 3 year’s contract with SSFA.
But Augustino stresses that without support from the government and other cooperating institutions, it will be difficult for the team to achieve its set target.
“For us to prepare a national team they are supposed to be camping now to increase their fitness ability and also to increase their training but if you don’t put them in camp, they don’t achieve the results needed. Whom do you blame? Sometimes we start to blame the coaches, players, and the administration yet all these require finances. So, if there are no finances don’t ask or dream of results in modern football” he added.
Augustino urged the public not to compare football to other individual or single-funded sports disciplines like basketball, volleyball, Netball, and others.
This is because currently, they are managing more than 10 ten national teams both women and men in regional, Continental, and International competitions which consumes much of the organization’s budget with little or no funding from government and cooperate organizations.
Apart from the Senior Men’s National Team, the association is struggling with funding.
He stated that they had faced similar problems in financing the U-15 boy’s National team and are currently in Kampala-Uganda participating in the CECAFA, U-15 Championship.