Briefs

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On to Brazil

DESPITE losing to Libya in the final of the African Futsal Championship, Egypt qualified to the FIFA Futsal World Cup in Brazil later this year. Hosts Libya beat defending champions Egypt 4-3 to become Africa's Futsal champions in an epic final on Monday night at the African Union hall in Tripoli.

Midfielder Abdel-Rahim Rabie scored the match winner in the second half of extra time for the hosts.

Libya, who had taken a commanding 3-0 lead as early as the ninth minute, surrendered the lead and allowed the Egyptians to come back into the game forcing extra time.

Mohamed Yahya opened the score in the third minute, followed by strikes from Rabie and Shahout Mohamed in the sixth and ninth minutes respectively.

But the Egyptians pulled one back in six minutes from half time through Hussein Ali, who connected home from close range.

The Pharaohs had the better of the second half and forced their way into the half of the Libyans who resorted to defensive play.

In the 33rd minute, Abdel-Samie Abdel-Rahim scored the second goal for the Egyptians on the run of play to confirm their dominance.

In the last 15 seconds Abdel-Mawla, in true reflection of the "champion die hard" slogan, stunned the home crowd with the equaliser from a goalmouth scramble to the astonishment of the Libyan fans, who were swimming in victory.

Mawla's strike took the game into extra time, and the Pharaohs continued their dominance with total control of the first half of extra time, but the winning strike remained elusive.

Libya came back strongly in the second half of extra time, and two minutes into the half, Mohamed Ibrahim wasted a glorious opportunity shooting wide from the spot.

A minute later, Rabie atoned for an earlier miss in normal time by lobbing the ball over the head of the Egyptian goalie Mohamed Hassanein, from a perfect move initiated by Yahya to put the hosts back in the lead.

The Libyans held their lead in check till the Tunisian referee brought proceedings to an end.

The packed hall came alive with chants of "Libya! Libya!" from the passionate fans who filled every corner of the African Union Hall, coupled with fireworks inside and outside the hall.

Rabie, scorer of the match winner, expressed happiness with the victory. "I am very happy that my goal won the game for us. All eyes were on us and we lived up to expectations."

Libya and Egypt will represent Africa at the World Futsal Championship in Brazil in September.

Morocco came from a goal down to beat Mozambique 3-1 for third place.

Back to Sion

EGYPT goalkeeper Essam El-Hadari packed his bags and left for Switzerland on Saturday, saying he was going to join Swiss club FC Sion, two days after being booed by Egyptian fans during a friendly against Argentina.

"I'm going to sign with Sion because nobody can take the treatment I've been subjected to recently and I can't take any more," El-Hadari told reporters at Cairo Airport, where he was escorted by security guards.

El-Hadari, who helped Egypt to win the African Cup of Nations for the second year in succession in February, fell from grace at home after a previous attempt to join Sion without the consent of his club Ahli, the most successful team in Egypt.

He had sought to terminate his contract in line with Article 17 of FIFA's transfer regulations which allows players to cancel their contracts after a "protected period".

El-Hadari, 35, had hoped that, because of his extended service at Ahli, he would be allowed to end his contract and move to Sion for a compensatory payment of 270,000 euros, the equivalent of the rest of his contract with the Cairo club.

After being unveiled as a new signing by Sion and agreeing to a deal until 2011, El-Hadari returned to Egypt at the start of this month when it became clear he could not move because he had not given Ahli the required notice.

Ahli suspended and fined El-Hadari despite his repeated apologies, while supporters called for the goalkeeper to be expelled from the club and banned from the international side.

DRC facing FIFA ban

DR CONGO may have to play home World Cup qualifiers away from Kinshasa after being given an ultimatum to fix security infrastructure at the capital's Martyrs Stadium.

Egypt is in Group 12 of World Cup qualifiers beginning in the summer along with DR Congo, Malawi and Djibouti.

The Congolese federation have been asked to name an alternate venue because FIFA is not satisfied that changes to improve the safety at the stadium had been implemented.

FIFA twice inspected the giant Chinese-built 80,000 capacity stadium, first at the end of 2006 and again last October.

"During the first visit, a list of requirements related to necessary improvements in infrastructure and security was established and given to the federation," a FIFA spokesman said.

"During the second visit, it was seen that the improvements had not been accomplished in a satisfactory way.

"As an exceptional measure, FIFA indicated to the Congolese federation that we would be willing to have a third inspection visit in early May.

"But that we would request a written guarantee to be sent by 4 April from both the Ministry of Sports and the federation that the works described during the first FIFA inspection visit would be carried out before May."

The Congolese, who qualified for the 1974 World Cup finals when the country was known as Zaire, had promised to make the changes and had been given until Friday to provide such a guarantee, FIFA said.

Visiting teams traditionally find the venue intimidating and the Congolese rarely lose competitive matches at home.

The spokesman said the federation should provide the name of an alternative venue and stadium approved by FIFA.

FIFA has put in place strict security measures for the 2010 World Cup qualifiers with Africa's qualifying campaign starting in June.

Some countries in the Caribbean region have been forced to cede home advantage in their qualifying matches because their home stadiums do not satisfy the new security standards.

Several African countries are also expected to forfeit the right to host World Cup qualifiers because of the poor condition of their stadiums.

FIFA has not given details of other stadiums under threat but Sierra Leone said earlier this week they had received notice of a stadium ban from FIFA.