There has been some chatter over the kooora forums that can now be confirmed: It seems that the Egyptian FA have chosen to cancel (or postpone depending on the source) the Friendly between Egypt’s and Palestine’s Olympic teams meant to commemorate Day of the Land. The reasons seem to be due to political pressure brought about by the proposed match. The Egpytian team would have needed Israeli travel permits in order to play at the Faisal Al-Husseini Memorial Stadium in Al-Ram and many in Egypt saw this as a furthering of the normalization process between the two countries.
For his part, Mohammed Aboutreika was denied permission to travel by El-Ahly who are currently engaged in the African Champions League. After the controversy broke out he proclaimed that he would “visit and play in Jerusalem once it is liberated”.
