16 - 22 May 2002
Issue No.586
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 16 - 22 May 2002 Issue No.586 |
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Half - time
Consideration lacking
For the fourth time in succession, the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) postponed its monthly board meeting -- and for the fourth consecutive time, no valid reason was given for scrapping it, at least not in public. But it is one of the worst-kept secret that the board members are unwilling to get together because of deep divisions over who will be the new national team coach.
Since January, following the African Nations Cup (ANC) and after coach Mahmoud El-Gohari's contract ran out, Egypt has been without a coach and the void does not look like being filled anytime soon. After Egypt's early ouster from the ANC, it was reported in several newspapers that the nod would go to a foreign coach and in fact three big-name managers were put on the table. But because they demanded salaries as high as the stratosphere, the Ministry of Youth's answer was thanks but no thanks.
The EFA echoed the same sentiments, announcing that there was no need for a foreign coach because, firstly, the team was not going to the World Cup and also because qualifications for the 2004 ANC do not begin until September.
Accordingly, three Egyptian names were proposed to take the helm: Ismaili's Mohsen Saleh, Mehalla's Farouk Gaafar and Anwar Salama of Misri. Although all are former coaches of the national squad, Saleh has the edge given his successful 1995 stint in which the team easily qualified for the ANC championship and, in the process, scored the most goals of any country en route to South Africa. Saleh's Ismaili is also currently atop the league standings, something which has sweetened his portfolio.
In order to allow Saleh and his two challengers to concentrate on the job at hand -- the league championship -- the EFA correctly decided to postpone naming who had won the coveted post until after the league concludes.
But then came the rumours that the EFA had made a U-turn and was back to reconsidering the idea of a foreign coach, thus effectively splitting its board members into two opposing camps: those for and those against a coach from out of Egypt.
Those in favour of the foreign brand claim he would best know how to handle a team overcrowded with European-based players and, just as important, would be immune to fan and media pressure which has taken its toll on locals who have previously held the pressure cooker job. As for the salary problem, that could easily be resolved, say the pro-foreign camp, by persuading the game's sponsors to pick up the tab.
If the rumours prove correct, then the EFA is no closer to selecting a coach than when the search began four months ago. In the meantime, Saleh and company have been made to look like fools after being feted wherever they went and after making the rounds of TV talk shows and being interviewed for dozens of newspaper stories and several magazine covers. The rug has been pulled out from under them in an embarrassing and highly inappropriate manner.
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