World Cup trophy touches down in Cairo

The 18-carat gold World Cup trophy  was met with pomp, circumstance and spectacle at the Cairo International Airport when it landed in Egypt Thursday morning.

Government officials as well as female dancers dressed in Pharonic-style dresses were at the airport to greet the Fifa World Cup delegation, who brought the 6 kg trophy with them in a steel box, later unveiling it in front of the media. The trophy will be in Egypt for three days before touring the rest of the African continent as part of a publicity trip to 89 countries. Its final destination is Brazil, the site of next year’s World Cup competition.

The ministers of sport, tourism, investment, civil aviation and electricity and energy were all on hand to receive the Fifa delegation, in addition to celebrities including Yosra, Mahmoud Qabeel, Asser Yassin and Ezzat Abou Ouf, who was also the spokesperson at the press conference held at the airport.

Abou Ouf thanked Fifa for bringing the trophy to Egypt, saying that “this sports event sends a very important massage to the world — a message of security, conveying that the situation in Egypt is stable; an economic and financial message, proving that multinational companies are and will always invest in Egypt; and a touristic message, as the grand celebration of the trophy’s arrival will be held at the pyramids, serving as a call for tourists to come and visit the oldest civilization in the world.”

Sports Minister Taher Abou Zaid also spoke at the presser, stating, “We live in a celebratory atmosphere these days, which makes up for the political turbulance and some sports losses Egypt endured during the past period.” 

Later in the day, the trophy was brought to the Ettehadiya Presidential Palace, where interim President Adly Mansour resides, reported the privately owned newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm (AMAY).

At the palace, Mansour was photographed holding the trophy, and spoke of the upcoming celebrations at the pyramids in honor of the event, which has an expected attendance of thousands. The delegation granted the interim president a miniature copy of the gold trophy as a souvenir.

The trophy ceremony comes in the midst of increasingly tense debates around the politicization of Egyptian football, marked most recently by the controversy that erupted when Al-Ahly player Ahmed Abdel Zaher made the four-fingered Rabea salute in the winning game of the African Cup.

After a recent defeat, the Egyptian national team will have another match off against Ghana on November 19 as it continues to attempt to make a bid for the World Cup qualifications. Egypt would have to score five goals in the game in order to stay alive in the qualifications.