“Africa News.comâ€: FIFA may exclude Egypt from eliminatories of next World Cup matches
The Egyptian Football Federation, EFF, has been invited for hearing by world football governing body, FIFA. After failed attempts in April, FIFA has set May 18 to meet officials of EFF in relations to violence against the Fennecs of Algeria at the Cairo International Stadium.
- Possible sanctions against EFF if found guilty are but not limited to deduction of points, matches to be played behind closed doors or simply excluded from the eliminatories of the next World Cup matches, Africa News website said.
- As a result of mounting tension before the play-off between Egypt and Algeria the match was moved to Ourmduman, Sudan, where the Fennecs squeezed a one nil victory over their Egyptian counterparts to qualify for the South African 2010 World Football jamboree.
- The Egyptian side refused to apologise at the time Algerian team threatened to withdraw from the eliminatories before Algerian authorities asked the Fennecs to play against the Egyptian team in Cairo in order to preserve the good ties between the tow countries. However, the intransigence of the Egyptian authorities and persistence of their TV channels pushed the Algerian Football Federation to complaint.
- Algeria is in Group C of the World Cup with England, USA and Slovenia.