“We regret to announce the cancellation of the press conference for the Egyptian national team, due to the delay of its date for more than an hour,” the media official in the Confederation of Football said.
He concluded by saying: “The Confederation of African Football wants to apologize for this fatal error outside its control, and we will submit a report to the concerned authorities.”
According to a source within the Egyptian national team, for the Egyptian website, “In the Joule”, the reason behind canceling the Queiroz conference is due to the insistence of the organizing committee to transfer Queiroz to the conference with the rest of the players, and not to transfer him there alone, because of the possibility that the players’ bus driver might lose the way when transferring the team later.
The source said: “After we left training, we headed to Ahmedou Ahidjo Stadium for the press conference, and we addressed the Confederation of African Football’s media committee to inform them of the situation and the delay in our arrival.”
He continued: “The insurance with the Egyptian national team insisted that everyone walk in one convoy towards the hotel to deliver the team and not allow the driver to take a separate path with the coach.”
He added, “This would have meant Queiroz’s arrival later than the scheduled time for the press conference, which was rejected by the African Union, so that the conference would be cancelled.”
He continued, “The decision to cancel came due to traffic congestion and the view of the security forces accompanying the mission convoy that the players’ bus should be delivered first to the residence, and not to provide additional insurance for the coach and player’s transported car to go directly to the press conference.”
And he concluded: “The mission’s management intends to submit a report on this to the organizing committee of the tournament, as it resulted in the transfer of the match from Olympia Stadium to Ahidjo and presenting it on time due to the instability of the team’s engagement dates.”
The press conference of the “Pharaohs” was scheduled to be attended by their Portuguese coach Carlos Queiroz and midfielder Amr Al-Sulayya, followed by a training session on one of the main stadium supplements, with the first quarter of an hour being open to journalists.
Cancellation of a press conference for a team playing the quarter-finals of a continental championship is out of the question, and is considered a major organizational failure, in addition to the series of cases that Cameroon recorded in the tournament, which showed incredible poor organization.