A decision not to dock six points from Cameroon in its World Cup qualifying campaign does not appear to bother groupmate Egypt. Mohamed El-Sayed says the move might be a blessing Not to worry. That basically was the Egyptian reaction to FIFA's decision on Friday to lift a six-point sanction from Cameroon in the 2006 World Cup qualifiers. The lifting of the ban makes it more difficult for Egypt, which is in the same group, to reach the World Cup but Marco Tardelli, the Italian head coach of the Egyptian national team, was not particularly perturbed. He said that on the contrary, the decision would benefit Egypt before it embarks on its qualifying campaign on 6 June against Sudan. "This decision made the picture clearer for us before starting the qualifying matches and entering into complex calculations," Tardelli said at a press conference held last week at the Media Production City where the Egyptian team is camping. "This decision will not affect our preparations for our group matches." The Italian coach, who replaced Mohsen Saleh following the Pharaohs' early exit from the first round of the African Cup of Nations in Tunisia in January, stressed that "any team which wants to qualify for the finals of the World Cup should be ready to play anybody." Rejecting predictions that the race will be between only Egypt and Cameroon, Tardelli maintained, "A more powerful side will fight for the qualifying ticket from our group: Ivory Coast." The Indomitable Lions had been sanctioned by world football's governing body for wearing one-piece kits, deemed illegal by FIFA, in the African Cup of Nations in January. FIFA President Joseph Sepp Blatter, whose decision it was to penalise Cameroon, ultimately proposed to the FIFA Congress that the penalty be removed in "an act of grace". Issa Hayatou, president of the Confederation Africaine du Football (CAF), and a Cameroonian, rallied support from FIFA's 52 African members at an extraordinary general assembly on 19 May to appeal. The punishment was removed by FIFA's centennial congress on Friday. However, the financial penalty of $155,000 remained. The Cameroonians will embark on their campaign to qualify for the 2006 World Cup on 6 June when they play on their home turf with the relatively weak Benin. Beside Cameroon and Egypt, Group C includes Libya, Sudan, the Ivory Coast and Benin. In preparation for Egypt's first fixture with the Sudanese side in Khartoum in the 2006 qualifiers, Tardelli ruled out the Marseilles-based Ahmed "Mido" Hossam and Hossam Ghali of Holland's Feyenoord, replacing them with Hassan Mustafa of Ahli and Amr El-Desouqi of Turkish Ankara. Despite announcing several times that he was "under the disposal of the national team", Mido phoned the Italian coach informing him that he could not arrive in Egypt before 25 May, saying he still had a match to play with his French club on 23 May. Late, Mido was reported to have come to Egypt without informing Tardelli. As a result, Tardelli's reply via the phone: "Thanks, but no thanks." Tardelli was not convinced with the reasons Ghali cited for not joining the team's training camp this week, also advising him to "stay in Holland". Ghali had told the coach that he wanted to remain with Egyptian goalkeeper Sherif Ikrami who is being given a trial period in Feyenoord. Stressing that their attitude "shows that they are not keen to represent their country", Tardelli said both players will not be summoned to the national team throughout the qualifiers "unless they apologise". Should Tardelli formally lodge a complaint to the Egyptian Football Association about the two miscreants, they will probably be banned from international games for no less than a year. Egypt will play a friendly tomorrow against Gabon in its last warm-up before the 10-match World Cup qualifications begin. Ahmed Hassan of Turkish Besiktas, Tarek El- Said of Zamalek and Ahmed Fathi of Ismaili have been ruled out because of injury. Zamalek's left winger Tarek El-Sayed has been added to the squad. Tardelli said he would apply the 4-4-2 format instead of the old-fashioned 3-5-2 in future matches.
