08:14, 26 June 2018

Guests of Chechnya suffer third defeat at World Cup

An Egyptian football fan. Volgograd, June 25, 2018. Photo by Vyacheslav Yaschenko for the "Caucasian Knot"

The Egyptian national team has completed its performance at the FIFA World Cup-2018, by losing 1:2 to Saudi Arabia in Volgograd.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that for the time of the World Cup, the Egyptian national team had settled in Grozny. Since the start of the tournament, the team lost all the three matches. Egypt expressed dissatisfaction with referees; and journalists have associated the failures with the accommodation in Grozny.

The remoteness of Grozny from the cities, where the team played its matches, has affected the physical condition of Egyptian footballers, the journalist Ikhab al-Zalaki wrote in his article published by the edition "Al-Mysri al-Youm". The New York Times columnist has recalled the appearance of the injured striker Mohamed Salah at the Egyptians' training session at the stadium in Grozny on June 10 accompanied by the leadership of Chechnya. According to the journalist, this promotion action prevented the Salah's rehabilitation.

On June 23, Ramzan Kadyrov awarded Salah the title of an honorary citizen of Chechnya. This decision contradicts the statute of the award, according which it is granted to those who have worked in Chechnya for at least 20 years, observers have noted.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 25, 2018 at 20:14 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.