{"id":49377,"date":"2026-11-02T13:48:21","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T11:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/?p=49377"},"modified":"2026-11-02T13:49:38","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T11:49:38","slug":"sports-south-sudan-u-15-rank-second-in-cecafa-at-fifa-world-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/02\/sports-south-sudan-u-15-rank-second-in-cecafa-at-fifa-world-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"SPORTS: South Sudan U-15 ranks second in CECAFA at FIFA World Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>By Sabri Dibaco<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>South Sudan\u2019s under-15 national football team has returned home after finishing second among teams from the Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA) region at the FIFA U-15 World Cup and Festival held in Baku, Azerbaijan.<\/p>\n<p>The young Bright Stars finished 48th out of 189 participating countries, placing them behind Kenya as the second-best team from the CECAFA region in the international competition.<\/p>\n<p>The team arrived at Juba International Airport following its participation in the tournament, marking an encouraging achievement for South Sudanese youth football and providing an opportunity for young players to gain international experience.<\/p>\n<p>Finishing ahead of several participating countries highlights the progress made by the country&#8217;s young footballers and their potential to compete at a higher level.<\/p>\n<p>The result also offers encouragement to football development programmes in South Sudan, particularly efforts aimed at identifying, nurturing and preparing young talents for regional and international competitions.<\/p>\n<p>South Sudan&#8217;s performance comes at a time when the country&#8217;s football authorities continue to face the challenge of developing grassroots football, strengthening youth competitions and providing young players with opportunities to compete internationally.<\/p>\n<p>The team&#8217;s second-place finish among CECAFA representatives is expected to provide motivation for further investment in youth development, coaching and competitive exposure.<\/p>\n<p>The achievement also demonstrates the importance of continued support from football authorities, clubs, schools and other stakeholders in building a stronger foundation for the future of South Sudanese football.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Sabri Dibaco South Sudan\u2019s under-15 national football team has returned home after finishing second among teams from the Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA) region at the FIFA U-15 World Cup and Festival held in Baku, Azerbaijan. The young Bright Stars finished 48th out of 189<a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/02\/sports-south-sudan-u-15-rank-second-in-cecafa-at-fifa-world-festival\/\">[Read More&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":49378,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,79,92],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","category-news","category-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/South-Sudan-U-15-rank-second-in-CECAFA-at-FIFA-World-Festival-e1793620077549.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49377"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49381,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49377\/revisions\/49381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}