2022 World Cup: Liverpool triggers a controversy over the qualifiers in Africa

Sadio Mané and Mohamed Salah.

(Illustration) AFP - RUI VIEIRA

Text by: RFI Follow

3 min

By officially deciding not to let Mohamed Salah play the next matches of his national team, due to health restrictions linked to the resumption of the coronavirus pandemic, the Liverpool club has drawn the wrath of the Egyptian Football Federation.

A case which should concern other African countries given the number (25) of States registered on the British "red-list".

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Between the English club Liverpool and the Egyptian Football Federation (EFA), it is far from being the great love.

This summer, the management of the Reds team refused to allow Mohamed Salah to participate in the Olympic Games in Tokyo, where Egypt lost (0-1) in the quarter-finals against the future Brazilian winners.

Almost a week before the start of the World Cup qualifiers, Liverpool once again angered the Egyptian federation by preventing its star Mohamed Salah from playing the matches scheduled against Angola in Cairo (September 2) and against Gabon (6 September) in Franceville.

Brazilians also stranded

Egypt is indeed on the British government's red list for the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to EFA, Liverpool's decision is linked to the fact that any player leaving for these listed countries must be compulsorily isolated for ten days upon their return.

Liverpool, who have started the season in the Premier League well with two wins in two matches, do not intend to do without ten days of their Egyptian international.

Moreover, the Reds also refused to release the Brazilians Fabinho, Roberto Firmino and Alisson Becker for the next three matches of the Seleçao in the qualifiers of the Qatari World, also revealed the British press.

Sadio Mané with Senegal

For its part, EFA said it had asked Fifa to lift quarantine obligations for international players, in order to allow them to join their national team.

Which still leaves hope for the Pharaohs.

Two other leading players, Mohamed Elneny (Arsenal) and Ahmed Hassan Mahgoub (Olympiakos) are also not, for the same reasons, in the list announced last week by Hossam Badry, the Pharaohs coach.

In addition, the Senegalese Sadio Mané, teammate of Salah in Liverpool, will be present with the Senegal Lions who do not appear in the red-list of the English.

Lists of African countries on Great Britain's red-list 

: Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Cape Verde, DR Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

To read also: World Cup 2022: calendar and results of qualifying Africa

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