Egypt to complain about referee in Russia match
Egypt says it will file a formal complaint with FIFA about referee Enrique Caceres’ performance during the Pharaoh’s match against Russia last week. The national team went down to a 3-1 defeat that knocked Egypt out of the 2018 World Cup. “We want an investigation into the performance of the whole refereeing team,” Egyptian Football Association president Hany Abo Rida told Reuters. He said that among the violations that Caceres ignored were those that pushed fullback Ahmed Fathi into steering the ball into his own net. He also said that Egypt was due a penalty shot in the 78th minute of the game.
Our very slim chances of qualifying for the next round of the tournament died on Wednesday with Saudi’s Arabia’s predictable defeat by Uruguay.
Egypt meets Saudi on Monday at 4:00pm CLT in what the AP is calling “an inconsequential match between two teams already eliminated from the World Cup.” The match, however, still determines who ranks last in Group A. It is also “about pride, politics and maybe some score settling too,” after Saudi Sports Minister Turki Al Sheikh made some comments about Mo Salah that were deemed inappropriate.
Dissent among in the ranks? Rumors had surfaced that the team’s performance has caused a rift between players and coaching staff ahead of tomorrow’s final game for the Pharaohs, according to Goal.com. Mo Salah was quick to squash rumors in a tweet on Wednesday.
On the plus side, the tournament did bring some Egyptian players to the attention of the international transfer market. Salah was naturally in the limelight, this time for being named an honorary citizen of Chechnya by President Ramzan Kadyrov. Mahmoud “Trezeguet” Hassan has reportedly attracted a lot of interest, including that of English team Leicester City, according to Turkish Newspaper Milliyet. El Hadary was also featured, “[agonizing] over his personal World Cup Milestone,” while the AP noted that many of the big names in football, such as Lionel Messi and Neymar, have been axed from the tournament (Check who’s in and who’s out).
Meanwhile, Egypt’s Coptic Christians say they’re feeling left out of the game “with the composition of the team and the way the squad was perceived [highlighting] what they believe is a problem with the sport in Egypt,” Hamza Hendawi writes for the AP.