Abdel Halim Mohamed Abdel Halim (Arabic: عبد الحليم محمد عبد الحليم; 10 April 1910 – 16 April 2009) was a Sudanese physician, writer, political activist, civil servant, and sports administrator who received national and international accolades for his work.

[1][4][5] Abdel Halim grew up with Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which led to the failure of one of his lungs in his youth.

[1][4] Due to the Second World War, he had to return to the Khartoum Teaching Hospital to work as an assistant to the senior physician.

[7][6] In the past, when investigative techniques were crude, Abdel Halim was described as "a superb medical diagnostician and an inspiring instructor.

[1][3][7][5] With his cousin, Muhammad Ahmad Mahgoub, Abdel Halim founded the ‘Hashmab society’, which advocated for education and enlightenment in Sudan.

[3][8][2] A book written by Muhammad Ahmad Mahgoub and Abdel Halim, titled "Death of a world" (Arabic: موت دنيا ), advocated personal sacrifice for the national cause.

[9][1][7][10] They wrote in its introduction: Our opinion gathered on issuing a fortnightly magazine that serves literature and the arts, and we chose for it the name 'Al-Fajr' because we believe that it is an honest dawn that will soon be followed by the morning...and we keep walking, neither criticism faltered our resolve, nor tempted us with praise.

It was a fierce war between intellectual reaction and free thought... and when an issue of 'Dawn' was published, it was followed by an uproar in the government and society.

[20] This meeting followed the formal discussions between the aforementioned associations at the FIFA Congress, held on 7 June 1956 at Avenida Hotel in Lisbon, Portugal.

[7][23] Abdel Halim was the first African to be elected as a member of the executive council of the International Association of Football Federation (FIFA) (1958–1962).

[25][26] This came years after the CAF expelled the Rhodesia Football Association, only four days after the country's unilateral declaration of independence on 11 November 1965.

[25] Abdel Halim was part of African boycott of the 1976 Summer Olympics, which was in Montreal because the International Olympic Committee (IOC) refused to ban New Zealand after the New Zealand national rugby union team had toured apartheid South Africa earlier in 1976 in defiance of the United Nations' calls for a sporting embargo.

[28][29] Abdel Halim objected to South African and Rhodesian sports segregation policies and refused to allow their teams to play unless it was mixed.

[15] Sepp Blatter, president of FIFA, paid tribute to Abdel Halim, stating that:In the name of the international football community, we would like to pass on our sincerest condolences to the people of Africa, particularly the family and close friends of Dr Abdel Halim Mohamed.

He will be sorely missed for his great intellect, determination and dedication by those whose lives he touched, whether on a personal level or as a result of the prodigious contribution he made within CAF during its emergence after 1956.