27 Sep. - 3 Oct. 2001
Issue No.553
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 27 Sep. - 3 Oct. 2001 Issue No.553 |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
Bit by bit football
The Egyptian football league kicked off 21 September. It is supposed to end on 24 May next year. Those are the only guaranteed dates. Anything else in between is assuredly uncertain.
According to the league fixture which appeared in its final version last month, the competition will first be suspended on 31 December for four staggered times, three days each time, because of engagements of both the national and Olympic soccer teams.
Then will come a 40-day hiatus that only a chosen few within the federation know when will start but which is to end 17 February to allow the national team to play in the African Nations Cup in Mali which starts 19 January.
After 17 February up till the finish line the league will pause five more times because of Egyptian clubs playing in their respective African championships.
To be sure, this confusion of the calendar is an annual occurrence. It is the same stop- and-go football every year, more so when Egypt is involved in an African Nations Cup which, unlike all other continental championships, is played biennially instead of the usual four years. But this year, despite what is reported to be a genuine effort by the federation to keep the ball rolling uninterrupted, the scheduling is more askew than usual.
In the English game, the world's oldest league, the schedule is stuck to almost religiously. It would take nothing less than a blizzard to postpone even one solitary match. It matters little how many championships are going on at club or international level. The players keep on chugging, sometimes playing three matches a week, not including almost daily practice sessions.
All professional sports in the United States have game schedules that are fixed way in advance and almost never are they tampered with. Only in the rarest of cases -- players on strike and, of course, in the aftermath of last week's terrorist attacks -- has the calendar in any of America's major sports been violated.
The benefits of a free flowing football league schedule free of trip-ups are obvious to all concerned. For the player, it is essential to know when he is going to play. On and off training for on and off matches affects timing on the field, fitness level and even morale. Just ask any coach. After just six months on the job, Don Revie, a former coach of the English national team, quit local team Ahli. The reason: the schedule; actually the lack thereof.
For spectators a straight no- nonsense schedule allows for buying season tickets early and going to games according to the kind of schedule the ticket purchaser keeps.
Few things are as captivating as a run for the league soccer title. Few things are more aggravating than for the contenders to have to stop dead in their tracks every so often.
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