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Bulgarian footballers among tanks

Fri, Oct 10 2008 14:00 CET 127 Views

The national football team has lodged a complaint against the Bulgarian Football Union for their lack of concern about the safety of the players for the South Africa World Cup Qualifier against Georgia in Tbilisi, on October 15 2008.

The Republic of Ireland, also in the group, faced Georgia previously but the game was held in Germany due the escalation of violence in South Africa. But while the Irish Football Association had done everything in its power to ensure the safety of its players, the same could not be said about the Bulgarian football union. The players say than cannot believe that no one has bothered to secure another venue for the match and that they will now have to travel to a country, which not so long ago was an war zone.

Beforehand, Bulgaria will face Group 8 game against Italy in Sofia on Saturday, October 11th. The Bulgarian side are desperate for a positive result even though Plament Markov, the Bulgarian, coach has played down the importance of beating Italy, stating that a point taken from the encounter will be registered as a success for the country's campaigning to qualify for South Africa. Bulgaria might be able to create a surprise however, as the Italian camp is reeling from injuries.

According to Eufa.com, the Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon and winger Mauro Camoranesi have been definitely ruled out of the upcoming FIFA World Cup qualifier because of injury.

The world champions have already been hit by a number of injuries to top players such as Andrea Pirlo and Marco Materazzi.

"The two players are out of the matches," Enrico Castellacci told reporters at Italy's training base in Florence.

Buffon will be out for around a month due to a muscle tear in his right leg and will almost certainly miss Juventus's UEFA Champions League Group H match with Real Madrid on 21 October.

Juve teammate Camoranesi also has a right leg injury and Castellacci said he would be missing for 15 to 20 days.

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