Egypt FA claim Mohamed Salah wanted to represent his nation at Tokyo 2020 but Liverpool informed them they would not be releasing him as the Olympics would end on August 7, one week before the start of the 2020/2021 Premier League season.
Clubs are however, not obliged to release players for the men’s Olympic football tournament as the competition is not officially recognised on FIFA’s match calendar. With Egypt keen to take the player to Japan, Fifa said the decision is in Liverpool’s hands.
“The men’s Olympic Football Tournament, as well as all Fifa competitions with age restrictions, are not included in the men’s international match calendar 2018-2024, and thus clubs are not under the obligation to release players for the competition,” said a Fifa spokesperson as per Daily Star.
Liverpool informed Egypt’s FA that they would not be releasing Mohamed Salah for the Olympic men’s football tournament at Tokyo 2020. According to the chairman of Egypt’s FA, Salah was keen to represent his nation in Tokyo this summer but was refused permission by his club.
The Olympics in Tokyo runs from July 22 until August 7, a week before the start of the Premier League, so Liverpool informed the Egyptian FA that they would not be releasing Salah for the competition.
“We started talking with them a long time ago because Salah wanted to play the Olympic Games, but Liverpool were unclear,” Ahmed Megahed told BBC Sport Africa.
“I knew in June they would not let him go. Anyway we respect their decision. I tried many, many times with Liverpool, as did the Egypt FA, to persuade them to let Salah be a part of the Olympic team but they refused completely” he said.
The Tokyo 2020 Olympics which was postponed since 2020 till 2021 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, features sports such as Basketball, Football, Boxing, Judo, Handball amongst other games. This year’s Olympic could take an slightly different turn as the numbers of spectators would be limited, due to Covid-19 restrictions.
