Macau pulls team from Sri Lanka World Cup qualifier citing safety
Macau’s football chiefs have said they will not send a team to Sri Lanka for a World Cup qualifying match this week, citing security fears following the deadly Easter suicide attacks.
The Chinese enclave had been due to play Sri Lanka on Tuesday in the second leg of a qualifying first-round clash.
But in a statement the Macau Football Association (MFA) said it had decided not to send a team “due to the recent terrorist attack in Sri Lanka and for the sake of the team’s personal safety”.
The MFA said it had asked FIFA, the Asian Football Confederation and Sri Lanka’s footballing authorities to switch the match to a neutral venue but the request had yet to be granted.
“MFA will have to put our players’ personal safety as a priority. And, in the view of the fact that we cannot guarantee the safety of the team while they are in Sri Lanka and we cannot afford to take the risk to put our players’ lives in danger,” the statement, published Saturday night, said.
The decision is a blow for sport in Sri Lanka, a country that has long hosted international sporting matches but is currently reeling from a series of coordinated Islamist suicide attacks against churches and hotels on Easter Sunday that killed more than 250 people.
Macau won the first leg 1-0 at home on Thursday thanks to a second-half goal from Filipe Duarte as the first round of Asian qualifying for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar got under way.
(AFP)
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Good on You, Macau,
Unfortunately, we have a Minister of Defence and Minister for Law and Order in the King’s chair who does not know what he is doing.
Despite significant intelligence reports from reliable sources of a terrorist attack in April, he went to pray Hindu Gods in India and then to Singapore to buy jewellery and sarees for his beloved son’s wedding.
So Macau, please don’t come to our island until we are secure.
Macau, you should have demanded all the bullet-proof limousines, all the elite-force body guards, etc. that have been assigned to our bunch of inept current politico-honchos before agreeing to come down. After all, these inept politi-kaakas have nothing to fear without such protection as no extremist/terrorist is going to take any pot-shot at them as they are today doing a much better job of ruining Sri Lanka methodically, piece by piece.