Afcon 2021: Nigeria’s foes Sudan part ways with head coach Velud

The Sudan Football Association have announced the dismissal of national team coach Hubert Velud before their participation at the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations.

The decision to part ways with the French coach came on Sunday after Sudan struggled to impress at the 2021 Fifa Arab Cup where they lost all their group games, without scoring and conceding 10 goals in total.

Velud joined Sudan in January 2012 and he guided the Northern African country to their first Afcon finals since 2012, after they finished behind leaders Ghana in Group C, ahead of South Africa and Sao Tome and Principe.

Subsequent to his sacking, the SFA adopted to go with their local coaches for the 2021 Afcon finals which will be headed by Burhan Tia with Mubarak Salman and Mohsen Sayed providing support as assistant coaches.

“The Board of Directors of the Sudanese Football Federation (SFA) held its second meeting on Sunday afternoon, December 12, 2021 and the results of the first session of the meeting were as follows: The dismissal of the technical staff of the first national team and the appointment of a Sudanese technical staff under the name of "Nidaa Sudan" after consultation with the specialists and the technical direction of the federation, provided that the technical staff include Burhan Tia, Mubarak Salman, Mohsen Sayed, Ibrahim Hussein,” read a statement on Twitter.

Sudan are paired in Group D of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations where they will face Egypt, Nigeria and Guinea-Bissau.

They will begin their quest for a second Afcon trophy on against Guinea-Bissau on January 11.

The news comes only hours after Nigeria let go of coach Gernot Rohr.