This is how to miss the World Cup! Saudi striker Fahad Al-Muwallad has been removed from the Saudi selection for the 2022 World Cup “as a precautionary measure” due to an anti-doping violation. The announcement was made this Sunday by the federation of the kingdom (SAFF) of football which did not wish to give more details.
The Saudi anti-doping body had suspended the Al-Shabab player for 18 months from the end of March because of a positive test for furosemide, a diuretic masking the presence of anabolics, which is on the list of products prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). This sanction had recently been reduced by a Saudi arbitration body, which could have allowed him to take part in the World Cup, according to local media.
Al-Abed summoned
Why was he still excluded from the group after being called up by Hervé Renard this weekend among the 26 players selected? To explain this decision, the Saudi federation invokes “the developments of (a) WADA appeal before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS)” in Lausanne. Saudi Arabia therefore took no risks.
Former Al-Ittihad striker in Jeddah, Al-Muwallad, 28, joined Riyadh-based club Al-Shabab in late August. He appeared as a potential holder in the eleven of Saudi Arabia which begins its World Cup on November 22 against Argentina. The winger had participated in the 2018 World Cup after being loaned, without much success, to the Spanish club Levante. To replace him, the French coach of the Green Falcons, Hervé Renard has summoned Nawaf Al-Abed.