JEDDAH, 10 September 2007 — Khalid Aziz left the training camp in Riyadh without a trace, prompting Saudi national football team Brazilian coach Helio Dos Angos to recommend a ban against him from the camp.
As a result, Aziz would miss Tuesday’s friendly match against Ghana as well as his Al-Hilal club’s matches. Aziz’s final fate, however, is to be decided at a meeting between Prince Nawaf ibn Faisal, deputy-president of the Saudi Youth Welfare and Saudi Football Federation, and the federation’s Nationals Committee. The committee made a report about the incident and suspended him from playing national team and club matches.
Aziz quit the camp on Saturday morning without notifying any of the management, technical and medical staff of the team. Team officials tried to call him to no avail.
“We were all surprised he was missing, we tried to get in touch but he did not respond and thus we decided suspending him will be an appropriate punishment. He will not join the Saudi team in the match against Ghana national team in Tuesday’s friendly match, and will not continue training at the training camp in preparation for the 11th Pan Arab Games to be held in Egypt and to the World Cup qualifying games,” said team manager Fahd Al-Misaibeih. Al-Misaibeih said Aziz showed up late yesterday during the investigation into the bizarre incident.
According to Al-Eqtisadiah daily, Angos made the assurance his plans will not be disrupted by the Aziz affair. “During all my 22 years of coaching I have never witnessed such an incident and behavior,” he said. “Eliminating Aziz cannot cause any technical chaos because we have many other excellent players such as Omar Al-Ghamdi, Saud Kariri and Tayseer Al-Jasim. Hence, I am not worried and for the meantime there will be no need to request for another player to replace Aziz,” he added.
