Sports
FIFA Best: Why Egypt coach, captain’s votes for Salah were void
The world football governing body, FIFA has revealed why two votes from Egypt which were cast in favour of Mohamed Salah for the FIFA Best awards were not counted.
Salah has been involved in dispute with the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) since the awards ceremonies in Milan on Monday, as his country did not vote for him.
EFA said acting Egypt coach Shawky Gharib and captain Ahmed Elmohamady voted for the Liverpool forward, that “it was an administrative mistake” on their part.
But Fifa has now revealed why the votes were void.
“The signatures on the voting forms were in capital letters and thus seemed not valid,” the football body said in a statement.
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Fifa noted that voting was supervised and monitored by independent observer PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Switzerland, and that it contacted the EFA twice on 19 August to submit properly signed voting forms but did not receive a response in time for the votes to be counted.
Since the awards ceremony, Salah has removed “Egypt” from his Twitter profile, which now reads: “Footballer for Liverpool FC.”
He also posted a tweet which translates as: “Whatever they do to try to change my love for Egypt, they will not succeed.”
The FIFA the Best Player of the Year award was won by Argentina and Barcelona forward, Lionel Messi.
He won the title ahead of Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo and Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk.
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