Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Saudi Arabia has invited Egypt’s national football team to the Kingdom to perform umrah in recognition of their qualification to the World Cup, Asharq Al-Awsat Newspaper reported.

Turki Al-Asheikh, Chairman of the General Authority for Sport and Chairman of the Saudi Arabian Olympic Committee, invited the team to perform the religious rite after their automatic qualification to the final next summer in Russia.

The Pharaohs, who are 30th in the FIFA rankings, topped CAF Group E by winning all but one of their 5 matches.

There are negotiations for a friendly match between Egypt and Saudi Arabia some time before the start of the World Cup, sources told the paper.

Last month, Saudi Arabia qualified for the World Cup for the first time since 2006 when the Falcons beat Japan in a do or die encounter in Jeddah.

In celebration for their team’s qualification to the competition, the Egyptian Football Association announced the lifting of “all previous sanctions on all players, administrators and technical teams of the Egyptian league, including futsal games and the republic’s tournaments for all age groups, starting October 15th.”

The association highlighted that previously sanctioned cases of fraud are exempt from the decision.

Source: http://www.arabnews.com/node/1178501/sports