Al Difaa crowned Champions of the first ever Sudanese Women League

Al Difaa were crowned with the title of the first edition of the Sudanese Women Football League, after defeating Al Tahadi 1-0 in the final, played on Saturday evening (21 December 2019) at Khartoum Stadium.

Striker Ilham Beltone scored the game’s lone goal in the 29th minute, as AL Tahadi failed to return into the match.

Beltone was crowned the league’s top scorer with 33 goals, with teammate Ruqaia Abdul Rahman winning the best goalkeeper award. Nidal Fadlallah, from Al Tahadi, won the best player award.

Al Difaa coach Ibtihaj Duma said that winning the league was a result of team effort. "There was determination among the players to win this title. We will continue to achieve more titles in the coming period”, she said.

The final match witnessed the attendance of a crowd of nearly six thousand fans, and Sudanese Football Association President Kamal Shaddad handled the trophy to the winning team.

For her part, Mervat Hussein Al-Sadiq, head of the Sudanese Women's Football Committee, expressed her satisfaction with the first edition of the championship. "We thank everyone who contributed to the success of the league, and we will work to improve more in the coming seasons. We have future programs that we will work to implement," she said.

The Sudanese Federation launched the Women's League at the end of last September with the participation of 21 teams before two of them withdrew. The teams were divided into four groups in Khartoum, Al Ubaiyd, Kadugli and Wadi Madani.

Eight clubs qualified for the quarter-finals, which were held in two groups in Khartoum and Al Ubaiyd, from which 4 clubs qualified for the semi-finals, where Al Difaa defeated Hilal Al Ubaiyd, while Al Tahadi qualified at the expense of Merriekh Al Ubaiyd.