Khaberni - The Confederation of African Football "CAF" imposed a fine on the Egyptian national team due to the non-compliance of its players and some technical staff with the media coverage rules for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations currently being held in Morocco.
After the end of the match between Egypt and Zimbabwe last Monday, in the first round of the group stage, the Egyptian team players quickly left the field, and later footage showed team captain Mohamed Salah speeding through the mixed zone without stopping to speak to journalists who tried to interview him.
According to the British site "Give Me Sport", the rest of the Egyptian players acted in the same manner, which led the African Confederation to impose a fine of 5,000 US dollars and issued a strongly worded warning to the Egyptian team officials against repeating the situation.
According to African journalist Micky Junior, "the players and technical staff refrained from communicating with the media in the mixed zone", adding "the entire delegation passed by the journalists without responding to post-match questions, which constitutes a clear violation of the African Football Confederation's media commitments."
CAF confirmed that it plans to impose stricter penalties if the rules are not followed again, while also emphasizing the necessity of adhering to what it called "media duties".
Salah Leads Egypt to Victory in Two Matches
In that match, the Egyptian team waited until stoppage time to secure a difficult victory when its star Salah scored the winning goal (2-1) in the 92nd minute, clinching their first 3 points in the tournament.
Later, Salah led the Egyptian team to a second victory in the tournament, this time against South Africa in the match that took place yesterday, Friday, as part of the second round of Group B.
Salah scored the only goal of the match in the 45th minute from the penalty spot, and the Egyptian team maintained the goal despite playing the entire second half with 10 players, following the expulsion of Mohamed Hany in the last moments of the first half.
The Egyptian team increased their points to 6, topping Group B, and officially became the first to qualify for the round of 16.
The Egyptian team is scheduled to finish the group stage by facing their counterpart from Angola next Monday at 19:00 Mecca and Doha time, 18:00 Cairo time.
