White T-shirt with Sudanese blood

Kwaku, an elder on the outskirts of Accra, whispered those wise words to me, but I didn't know then that they referred to Real Madrid , the world of football , and Sudan. It's one of the oldest Akan proverbs: "The loudest drum is the empty one inside." The Akan are a proud people of Ghana with singular wisdom. They are one of those peoples with too many centuries of history on their shoulders to accept cynicism without question. They are different. Heirs to the historic Ashanti empire and with a matrilineal system, where lineage is passed down through the mother, they have a symbolic relationship with gold, a source of purity and power. Their cultural richness is reflected in conversations constantly peppered with proverbs.

This week, the most merciless horror brought to mind the words of the Akan elder. The fall last Sunday in Sudan of the city of El Fasher, capital of North Darfur, to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary militia, unleashed countless atrocities as the rebels hunted civilians, house by house, or chased them across the countryside with their vehicles or camels. Children, the elderly, and women were murdered, tortured, or raped without mercy. They even executed in cold blood all 460 patients in the main hospital. Attention to halt this barbarity, which reeks of genocide, has turned toward the United Arab Emirates. Logically so: there is ample evidence that the Gulf country, in exchange for receiving Sudanese gold clandestinely, sends weapons to the RSF through Libya or Chad. Dubai's white gold is stained with Sudanese blood.

A few months ago, FC Barcelona 's sponsorship agreement with Congo rightly sparked a torrent of criticism from both inside and outside the club for its obscene association with a country at war, where two-thirds of the population live in poverty. The agreement was labeled as whitewashing, a strategy used by some governments that disregard human rights to improve their international image through sports. Often, shell companies such as foundations or airlines are used to disguise the fact that the advertising is for an entire country.

Those indignant cries about Barça and Congo have turned into an uncomfortable silence this week, as videos, recorded by the killers themselves, of the massacres in Sudan have emerged.

For years, the Emirates, using its national airline as a front, has sponsored global sporting events and some of the strongest football teams in the world, such as Arsenal, Milan, Benfica, or the crown jewel: Real Madrid.

Winning is fine, but playing with a blood-stained shirt should perhaps outrage us all a little more.

To feel a little less empty inside.