Egypt to play Ghana in military stadium
Minister of Sports Taher Abu Zeid said Wednesday that Egypt will face Ghana in the World Cup playoff match in Cairo. The match will be held in the Air Defence Military Stadium on November 19.
Egypt must submit details about the timing and location of the match to world football authority FIFA by tomorrow. This information was meant to have been sent last week but FIFA extended the deadline in light of the political turbulence in the country.
It was expected that the match would be played in Cairo Stadium but security bodies rejected this on the grounds that the centrally located stadium is too near the Rabea al-Adaweya mosque, the site of a Muslim Brotherhood sit-in dispersed on August 14.
Football in Egypt has been suspended since the June 30 demonstrations against Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. Some African League games were held in the Red Sea city of Hurghada due to the ban on fixtures in Cairo for security reasons.
Abu Zeid said that football fans will attend the match but the exact number of spectators will be agreed on with security bodies and announced at a later date.
Egypt will play its first playoff match in Kumasi, Ghana on October 15. Egypt has only qualified for the World Cup twice in its history, in 1934 and 1990.
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