22 - 28 February 2001
Issue No.522
|
Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 22 - 28 February 2001 Issue No.522 |
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
Half Time
A tricky game
Like all great backcourt guards, Egypt's basketballer Samir Gouda is a master of deception on the court. But his sleight of hand knew no bounds when he was recently caught playing for two clubs at the same time.
For the past several months, Gouda has been playing for Egypt's Zamalek and moonlighting for Apolloun of Cyprus. The ruse began when, after two games for his local team and just one point, the hooper feigned injury and requested that Zamalek send him abroad for treatment. Zamalek agreed-- no one yet knows how or why -- that not only was he injured but that it was serious enough to warrant treatment abroad. Once on the Mediterranean island where he was sent, Gouda reported to Apolloun, signed with them and after a few games, he once again made believe he was injured. Oddly enough, Apolloun doctors -- apparently as inept as their Zamalek counterparts -- pronounced him indeed injured and recommended he stop playing until he was fully fit. Then it was back to Zamalek, and so on and so forth.
The strategy played well in both camps until an innocent remark uncovered the sham. At a social engagement, a former Egyptian basketball player mentioned how much he admired Gouda's performance with the Cypriot club. The cat was out of the bag and the story of the now-you-see-him, now-you-don't Gouda began making banner headlines on the sports pages.
At first, Gouda denied the story, claiming he never left Egypt but had dropped out of sight for awhile to take care of his sick mother. However, he refused to name the hospital she was being treated in. And when asked at a press conference to present his passport which would have proven he had not left the country, he claimed he had forgotten it in his home town of Port Said.
A local newspaper set the record straight, running a story which was published in a foreign newspaper that reported on a match Gouda played in Cyprus in which he scored 17 points. Zamalek officials, who had all along denied that their player was playing for anyone else but them, were forced to retract when a faxed message from the Cypriot Basketball Federation confirmed Gouda was playing for Apolloun.
The charade over, Gouda fessed up. He promised to return the LE50,000 Zamalek had paid him but thus far he hasn't. Surprisingly, Zamalek has not pressed him on the matter, which could suggest something other than club magnanimity. Rumours have abounded that a few of Zamalek's personnel knew all along about Gouda's double-dealing but decided to temporarily look the other way. That way, so the story that is circulating goes, they would use the Gouda case as ammunition when the time was ripe -- which would be now -- with elections soon to be held in the club for president and the board. They would simply lay the blame for the scandal on their opponents.
Until there is evidence of a wider scheme of complicity, the responsibility for Gouda's duplicity -- which violates all international rules -- should fall solely on him. It would have been understandable for a player of lesser stature or a newcomer to the world of sports and big money to be tempted into playing for two squads, thus collecting two paychecks and a double dose of adulation in the process. But Gouda, our own version of Michael Jordan, is in no particular need of fame or fortune. A decade's worth of fine basketball should have taken care of both categories. But obviously it didn't.
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
| ARCHIVES Letter from the Editor Editorial Board Subscription Advertise! |
WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg |
 Al-Ahram Organisation |
Recommend this page