Algeria to erect tents in SA
...as Desert Foxes intensify preps
for the Zambia encounter
By Sports Reporter
AFTER completing a fact-finding mission in Zambia last week, the Algeria Football Federation (FAF) has resolved to camp the Desert Foxes for six days in South Africa before flying over to Ndola two days before the crucial 2010 World Cup and African Cup soccer qualifier in Chililabombwe.
Coach Rabah Saadane, who was part of the four-man delegation that inspected Konkola Stadium and accommodation facilities in Chingola, said his charges would camp in Pretoria at the Sheraton Hotel before jetting into Ndola 48 hours before the match on June 18.
According to an Algerian online French publication Le Buteur, the Desert Foxes will leave Algiers on June 11 via Paris, France into Johannesburg and then take a drive to their camping site.
The Algerians wanted to acclimatise in South Africa before heading to the battlefront against the Chipolopolo for the match set for June 20 at Konkola Stadium in Chililabombwe.
Saadane came to Zambia with FAF president Mohamed Raou Raou and two other technical officials, Sadi Walid and Zfizef Djahid Abdelwahab to check on the facilities.
For their June 7 home game against Egypt in Blida, Algeria will camp in Marseille, France where journalists and fans would be barred from visiting the camping site.
And the Rwanda Football Federation (Ferwafa) has rejected the Egyptian Football Association’s (EFA) appeal for the shifting of the date for their Group C match in Cairo from June 10 to 12.
According to The New Times newspaper, EFA informed Rwanda of their intentions to have the qualifier against the Amavubi moved to June 12, but Ferwafa decided to give the Pharaohs a ‘cold-shoulder’ on their proposal, maintaining that the game will be played on June 10 as earlier schedule by the world governing body, Fifa.
Ferwafa’s chief executive officer Jules Kalisa said: “The coach (Tucak Branko) wants the Egypt qualifier to be played on the scheduled dates.
“So we don’t want to interfere with his preparations, targets and focus.”
Kalisa said immediately after playing Zambia on June 6, Rwanda would board a plane for Cairo for the Egypt fixture, adding that the move would help Branko to spend more time with his professional players.
EFA informed Fifa of the difficulty of facing Rwanda on June 10, following Algeria’s alteration of the original date of their qualifier from June 6 to 7.
The Egyptians complained that the change of dates would mean the African champions would have less than three days to prepare for the Rwanda tie.
