Al-Merrikh Sporting Club is a Sudanese professional football club based in the city of Omdurman. Their home stadium is Al-Merrikh Stadium, which is locally known as The Red Castle. Founded in 1908, Al-Merrikh is one of the oldest football clubs in Africa. They have won the Sudan Premier League 22 times and Sudan Cup 26 times. The club has a fierce rivalry with Al-Hilal with the games between them regularly selling out, as well as being the only other realistic challenger to the league crown. They won the Om-al-Dahab championship in 1965 and are the only team to have ever won this one time event. Al-Hilal is also based in Omdurman with only Al-Ardha Street separating the teams. Between them they are Sudan's most powerful and successful football clubs.

The African Cup Winners' Cup was a football competition that started in 1975 and merged with the CAF Cup in 2004 to form the CAF Confederation Cup. It was a competition between the winning clubs of domestic cups in CAF-affiliated nations and was modelled after the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup.