Carousing Egyptians caught with pants down

The Egyptian soccer players who claimed that they had been robbed at their hotel may have been having a party in one of their rooms before female partygoers made off with their money, according to a top Gauteng police official.

On Friday it emerged that five players had told police that they, along with an official from the Puma sports firm, had had about R19 000 stolen from them at the Protea Hotel Wanderers in Joburg.

But a senior policeman said on Saturday there was no sign of forced entry into the rooms."They could have come up with the robbery claims to avoid being caught out or embarrassed by their spouses and girlfriends back home in Egypt."No money was taken from the safe, but we have heard that they had been drinking and womanising, and the same women later robbed them."We have reason to believe that they brought the women on to the premises and were celebrating with them before they were robbed of their money.

"A policeman at Norwood police station, where the theft complaint had been lodged, said police had found that the players had been consorting with "ladies of the night". The policeman, who declined to be named, also said there was no sign of forced entry.Police and the hotel have refused to name the players, who were apparently celebrating Egypt's 1-0 victory over Italy in their Confederations Cup game on Thursday.

When asked on Saturday national police spokesperson Director Sally de Beer refused to say who the five players were, adding that the investigations were ongoing. She said the five were not in their rooms at the time of the incident.Security officials had confirmed the team had been dropped off at their hotel just before or after midnight. For the Confederations Cup, shuttles are provided 45 minutes after each game to take players directly to their hotels.According to the complaints register at Norwood police station, the theft complaint was lodged by Caroline Jones of Linden Road, Johannesburg, 12 hours after the incident. Jones is the hotel's general manager.

De Beer said: "According to information at my disposal the police did react swiftly after being notified of the complaint - it is quite possible that the administrative process of registering the case only occurred later."Asked for comment, Janine Andrews, the hotel's assistant manager, referred queries to Jones, then said Jones was busy and arranged for the hotel's public relations firm to send its original media statement via e-mail.The Protea Hotel Wanderers was asked via the public relations firm why the case was reported to the police only 12 hours after the incident, whether hotel cleaning staff had been questioned, why Jones opened the docket at the Norwood SAPS, and whether the hotel had security cameras showing who entered and left the premises, also within the perimeter of the lifts on each level.

"Protea Hotels takes these allegations very seriously and is co-operating fully with the relevant law enforcement bodies in this investigation," the hotel said via e-mail. "We currently have nothing further to report as the investigations are still ongoing."Rich Mkhondo, spokesman for the 2010 Fifa World Cup local organising committee, said soccer officials took the security of players and fans seriously.But the story about what had allegedly happened to the Egyptians was becoming "murky", and he hoped that the police investigation would end the confusion.Egyptian team spokeswoman Inas Mazhar could not be reached for comment.Egypt will play the US at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg on Sunday.

Egypt deny sex link to Confed Cup robberyThis is not the first time sporting personalities have made the news for the wrong reasons.In 1998 Pakistan threatened to halt their South African tour when bowlers Mohammad Akram and Saqlain Mushtaq were "mugged" outside their Sandton hotel. They were both injured.But the louder the Pakistanis complained, the more rumours began to circulate that Akram and Mushtaq (who hadn't made any sworn statements to the police about the mugging) had, in fact, picked up their black eyes and chipped teeth in a bar brawl at a strip joint called Club 69.Ali Bacher, the former cricket board boss, said at the time that he had witnesses that the Pakistani pair were beaten up after they touched the strippers.