EFA in fresh embarrassment over missing Salah votes

Mohamed Salah of Egypt during the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations

Wednesday Sep 25, 2019. 10:00

The Egyptian Football Association (EFA) faces fresh embarrassment after it was revealed they failed to register the vote of Olympic coach Shawky Ghareeb and captain Ahmed Elmohamady for the FIFA Best Player Award.

The pair both voted for Egypt forward Mo Salah, but it appears as though the EFA failed to forward these to FIFA, with the official record stating that neither of them had made a choice.

But both have subsequently come out and said they did vote, and chose Salah as the Best Player.

When it is said I did not vote it is not correct,” Elmohamady said. “I gave my voice to Mohamed Salah, then [Cristiano] Ronaldo and Sadio Mane.”

The EFA and Salah have a techy relationship as it is and while this would have had no material effect on Lionel Messi walking away with the top prize, it is another slight towards the Liverpool forward.

Salah has been selected by new coach Hossam El-Badry for a camp to take place during the October FIFA window, but recently removed a reference to playing for Egypt from his social media biography, which now just reads “Footballer for Liverpool FC”.

He also left a cryptic message on Twitter on Tuesday with a picture of him behind the Egypt flag and the words: “No matter how much they try to change my love for you and your people, they will not know.”