Cairo: Egyptian authorities are seeking to bring back 12 players who vanished in Europe while taking part in a Football Championship for the blind in Poland in 2015.
The players, who were supposed to be visually impaired, turned out to be perfectly healthy and visually fit, and they were only using the trick to flee the country.
The Egyptian Public Prosecution sent an official notification to Interpol to track down the fugitives and extradite them, Al Bayan reported.
The newly-formed Egyptian Federation for People with Visual Disabilities had decided to refer the case to the Attorney General for investigation to uncover the circumstances surrounding the scam.
Four other Egyptian people suspected of involved in the football scam are also standing trial.
"Those athletes are not blind. Some of them have technical diplomas and others were requested for military service," said the federation following the investigation it had conducted.
The Polish authorities discovered that the Egyptian players sent to take part in the 5th International Goalball Tournament in April 2015 in Suprasl, Poland, were in fact healthy, which made them ineligible to take part in the tournament. The players then decided to go AWOL following their exclusion.
The Youth and Sports Ministry had referred 16 people to the General Prosecution over charges of approving the travel of at least 12 sighted people to Europe in place of visually-impaired footballers who were supposed to take part in an international competition in Poland.
The officials referred to trial are from the Egyptian Blind Sports Association and Al Eiman club, one of Egypt’s Paralympics sports clubs. Local media unveiled the incident last week, labeling it a "scandal".
Reports noted that the fake players vanished after reaching Europe, making use of the visas intended for the blind team.