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Rabat – Gianni Infantino has invited 13 members of a Thai youth football team who have been trapped in a cave in Thailand to attend the World Cup final.
Infantino, FIFA President, wrote, “I would like to join you in expressing my deepest sympathies and support to the families of the players and coach,” in a letter to the team.
“FIFA would be delighted to invite them to attend the 2018 World Cup final in Moscow as our guests.”
The members of the team, aged 11 to 16 along with their coach have been trapped inside a cave for 15 days. The team were trapped after a sudden downpour closed off their exit.
Former Thai Navy SEAL diver Saman Kunan died last week while on a rescue operation mission to install air tanks along the exit route on July 5.
The evacuation of the young boys started on Sunday. Thirteen divers and five Thai Navy Seals entered the cave at 10 a.m. local time to begin rescuing the team and its coach.
Quoted by news outlet Time, rescue mission chief Narongsak Osatanakorn told reporters that “Today is D-Day. We are 100% ready.”
He further explained, “There’s a storm coming and if we wait for the rains, conditions won’t be as perfect as they are now.”
The rescue team managed to bring out four boys on Sunday.
After Sunday’s successful operation, the rescue team began again at 11:00 a.m. Monday.
The Guardian quoted Osatanakorn today as saying: “The factors are as good as yesterday [and] the rescue team is the same team with a few replacements for those exhausted.”
Today’s operation resulted in the rescue of the fifth boy.
Last week, the boys wrote handwritten letters to parents to console them, with their coach apologizing to the parents. The coach also promised to take good care of the boys.
