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| June 16, 2006 | Friday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 19, 1427 |
Saudis snubbed for individual award
MUNICH, June 15: No Saudi Arabia players can be named as the official FIFA Man-of-the-Match in any of their World Cup matches because the award sponsor is a brewer, a team official said on Wednesday.
The Technical Study Group of world soccer's governing body FIFA names each match's best player, an award backed by a US beer company, which is one of the official sponsors of the tournament.
“Yes, it is like that. What you are saying is correct and that is all I can say,” a team official said, confirming Saudi television reports saying the team would refuse to have any of their players awarded the Man-of-the-Match title because of the sponsor.
The sale and consumption of alcohol is strictly forbidden in many Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia.
A stoppage-time equaliser by Tunisia in the 2-2 draw with Saudi Arabia saved FIFA the embarrassment of naming a Saudi player, who would not have accepted the award.
Tunisia's Ziad Jaziri was named Man-of-the-Match by FIFA's Technical Study Group for scoring his team's first and setting up their second goal.
Meanwhile, many Saudi fans felt they had been robbed of victory.
They regretted the loss of two points that would have given the Saudis a push toward the second round in this year's tournament.
“Why not be optimistic and bank on the Green reaching the second round,”asked Fuad Anwar, who scored one of the two goals that gave Saudis a 2-1 win over Morocco in the 1994 World Cup.
King Abdullah phoned the head of the Saudi football federation to congratulate him after the match, and decided to go ahead with a reward of nearly $27,000 for each player, even though the bonus had been promised in the event of victory, not a draw.—Agencies
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