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Al-Ahram Weekly 5 - 11 August 1999 Issue No. 441 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 5 - 11 August 1999 Issue No. 441
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Focus Interview Features Travel Living Sports Time Out Chronicles People Cartoons Letters Weightlifting scandal
By Eman Abdel-MoetiThe Egyptian Weightlifting Federation has suspended Hani Bassiouni and Ali Attia who compete in the 85 kg and 56 kg categories respectively for having fled to Qatar and leaving the national team without giving prior notice. The two players were reported missing from the team's training sessions in Alexandria two weeks ago.
National team coach Gaber Hafez phoned the president of the federation, Dr Mahmoud Shukri, from Alexandria and told him of the two players' disappearance and of the frustration of the rest of the team members. They were upset and envied their colleagues who signed contracts with Qatari officials to represent Qatar in the upcoming Arab Games in Jordan for US$800 a month each in addition to being awarded Qatari citizenship. Hafez warned the president of the federation that the rest of the players might quit the team and follow the example of their teammates for better salaries and allowances. He asked him to seriously consider the matter and solve it as soon as possible for the benefit of the sport.
Egypt dominates the game at both the Arab and African levels.
Shukri went to Alexandria to investigate the matter and suspended both players and froze their financial allowances. In addition, he decided to give each player an LE800 incentive in the run-up to the Arab Games in August and the African Championships in September.
Federation officials quickly made contact with the Arab Sports Federation and the Organising Committee of the Arab Games in Jordan to lobby for rejection of the players' applications as Qatari players. Egypt explained that a player is not allowed to represent his new country until four years after obtaining citizenship. The Egyptian Federation officially warned its Qatari counterpart against allowing the two weightlifters to participate in the Qatari team in the Arab Games.
Meanwhile two precautionary measures were taken. It was decided that the national team training camp would be transferred to the Olympic Centre in Maadi. Any requests by players to leave the country for any reason will be rejected until further notice.
The Supreme Council for Youth and Sports and the Egyptian Olympic Committee were notified of the incident and an investigating committee outside the federation has been formed to prepare a report and submit it to Dr Kamal El-Ganzouri, the prime minister who heads the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports.
The investigating committee discovered that federation manager Gamil Hanna was behind the defections. It has transpired that he helped set up the transfers in what he called "an attempt to introduce professional weightlifting to Egypt."
The move has reportedly left the other team members resentful of the high salaries offered to Attia and Bassiouni especially as they are not considered the best in the team.
Hanna justified his action, saying: "The Qatari federation were going to recruit weightlifters from Bulgaria and Pakistan which threatened Egyptian supremacy in Arab and African competitions. So I offered two of our players who are not the best in the national team so this won't affect our African and Arab dominance."
Hanna added that Qatar is also recruiting three Egyptian coaches, Mostafa Abdel-Halim, Reda El-Batuti, and Mohamed Amer. He said that if other officials continue to accuse him of wrongdoing, he will submit his resignation after the forthcoming games. He said he would go to Qatar, Kuwait or UAE as an international lecturer.
