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Al-Ahram Weekly 8 - 14 April 1999 Issue No. 424 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 8 - 14 April 1999 Issue No. 424
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Profile Features Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters A change of heart
By Inas Mazhar"Cuesta is fired". That was the news that made headlines less than a month ago when it was announced that the services of Javiar Cuesta, the Spanish coach who had led the national handball squad since 1995, were no longer needed.
A day earlier, on 7 March, the president of the Egyptian Handball Federation, Hassan Moustafa, had told a press conference that Cuesta was no longer fit to train the team. Specifically, Moustafa said Cuesta had fallen out of favour with the players who had lost confidence in him as a coach after the team finished a disappointing third in the African championship in Johannesburg last November. Before the championship, Egypt was ranked sixth in the world. The dramatic dismissal announcement was made just days before the team was to play in the World Cup in Norway and only three months before the start of the world championship, which Egypt is hosting. The danger of a change in personnel so close to two major tournaments was evident.
Perhaps sensing the perils inherent in its decision, the federation did an about-face, announcing last week that Cuesta would return, replacing Yugoslav Prinislav Pokrajic, whose coaching job with the team lasted hardly a month. According to the official explanation, Pokrajic's ouster was due to his failure to return from home leave in time to start the team's final preparations before the world championships, scheduled for June. Pokrajic had been due to return to Egypt with his wife on 1 April but has so far failed to show up because of the security situation in Belgrade in the wake of NATO's military attack on Yugoslavia.
"We waited for him at the airport three different times," Moustafa said. "Each time, he said he was arriving, but he never showed up." Since there was no time to waste, Moustafa said the federation decided the best solution was to get Cuesta back. "Cuesta is the best one who knows the team," Moustafa said. "I talked to the players and they welcomed the idea of his return and said they would cooperate with Cuesta in the world championship." Moustafa added that Cuesta was still in Egypt when the nod came and that his contract with the federation does not end until June.
While in Norway, Moustafa recounted the run-up to Cuesta's firing, telling the Weekly that he was none too happy to have given Cuesta the axe because he believed he was a good coach. "Don't forget that Cuesta helped us retain our sixth-place ranking in the world," Moustafa said. "He also improved both our defensive and offensive lines. With Cuesta, we had the second best offence after Russia, the world champions, and the second best defence after Sweden in less than three years. What more can we ask for?"
But the players, the media and the public were asking, in fact demanding, more, particularly a way of raising the team's world seeding. The loss in Africa, however, was a debacle that had to be dealt with first before the team could set its sights on loftier goals. "After losing the African championship, the team collapsed," Moustafa said. "The players lost confidence in themselves and in their coach. They blamed their coach for misleading them. They said they could no longer work with him or follow his instructions, because he had nothing new to teach them. The players had also convinced the media that he was a poor coach so the public, too, began to dislike him.
"I was put in a difficult situation," Moustafa continued. "I had only two alternatives: either get rid of the players or sacrifice the head coach whom I believed and still believe in. I had to choose between what I wanted and what was best for the team."
Cuesta
The federation, seeing that a changing of the guard was in the team's best interests, decided to show Cuesta the way out and hired Pokrajic, whose first test ended in a poor result after Egypt placed sixth out of eight teams in the World Cup.
Moustafa said Pokrajic has no inkling about what has happened to him. "We have not been able to reach him," Moustafa said, adding that he has new plans for the Yugoslav. "When he returns we will let him train the junior team instead. His contract with us states that he is a trainer in the Egyptian Federation but it does not specify which team."
As for Cuesta, his first words after being rehired were: "It's good to be back." The Spaniard promised to do his best with the team and achieve the best result ever for Egypt in the world championship.
How long will Cuesta last this time? "His result with the national team in the world championship will determine his future with us," Moustafa said. .
