Brazilian team also robbed at Confederations Cup

PRETORIA - Brazil has become the second team at the Confederations Cup competition to fall foul of robbers in their hotel, a Brazilian official announced Sunday.

Speaking after the Selecao had beaten Italy 3-0 in their Group B match to advance to the semi-finals with a maximum nine points, media officer Rodrigo Paiva said that the physical therapist of the team, Odir Carmo, had a jacket as well as a quantity of cash stolen from his hotel room.

“Our defender Kleber also thinks that he has had money stolen from him and the other players are looking into their situation,” Paiva said.

He announced that they had informed their own security staff and the management of the Centurion Lake Hotel on the outskirts of Pretoria, where the team is staying, of the incident.

“The hotel informed us that they are investigating,” Paiva said.

On Friday Egyptian players said that they were robbed in their hotel in Johannesburg during their historic 1-0 win over Italy.

The incident made international headlines, amid persistent concerns over high crime rates in South Africa in the run-up to the World Cup next year.

But two South African Sunday newspapers gave a different version of events. The Sunday Independent and City Press both quoted police sources as alleging that the players had fallen foul of light-fingered female consorts at an impromptu victory party.

The chairman of the Egyptian football federation reacted angrily to the allegations that the players had been “caught with their pants down”, as the Independent’s headline put it.

“I think that they (newspaper’s sources) said that to divert attention from the main issue, which is security, by creating a scandal for the Egyptian team,” Samir Zahir told the German Press Agency DPA.