Falling apart
By
Inas Mazhar
While Egyptian fans and officials were raucously celebrating the recent achievements of numerous Egyptian teams and individuals in various sports, we were stunned with the sudden and humiliating defeats of the two most famous teams in the country; the Ahli football team and the national junior handball team.
In recent weeks, Egypt's teams across the sports spectrum -- such as weightlifting, squash and modern pentathlon -- have taken home world championships. The shooting team clinched the bronze medal in the Grand Prix, the taekwondou team claimed the Arab championship, while other teams continue to compete in regional and international events with expectations of similarly striking results.
It has been a long time since Egyptian fans have had reason to celebrate with such vigour, and the past few weeks have given them much to applaud. But with every peak, somewhere there is a valley, and someone, time has told, is destined to fall.
The Ahli football team fell face-flat into that valley -- shocking Egyptian fans with its 4-0 defeat to the Rangers club of Nigeria. For years now, Egyptian football clubs have forgotten the feeling of falling so forcefully to African teams. That is not to say we were winners all the time. We were defeated in some matches, but never with such disgrace. This loss -- for a club as famous and powerful as Ahli, the club of the century for its remarkable achievements -- was shameful to players, officials, members of the club and fans as well. Ahli's celebrations and winning streak came to a halt last week, since the team beat archrivals Zamalek for the FA super Cup title. The team lost its league opener to Ismaili 2-1 and then lost to Nigeria's Rangers club. The players have failed themselves and their supporters. Two defeats in a week is too much. Could it be that the club is deteriorating? It is clear that the team is not as strong and grounded as it was, but the hope is that experience and history will open Ahli's eyes -- to the lessons they must learn and to the corrections they must make.
The second surprise of the week was the national juniors handball team placing 10th in the world juniors handball championship, which took place in Brazil. For the past year, the media have been warning both the public and officials of the deterioration of Egyptian handball on all levels; teams competitions, juniors and senior teams. The media have also tossed their coins and predicted the loss of Egypt's supremacy to North African clubs and national teams -- particularly Algeria and Tunisia who dominated the game in the seventies and eighties. The nineties, it could be said, was a handball decade that will be remembered by a country: Egypt. For the past decade, the national seniors team, the juniors and the clubs have overpowered and outclassed their north African rivals and captured all regional titles -- in addition to snatching a berth from Europe and being placed among the top 10 in the world. The biggest achievements of the game were the World Cup title for the juniors, in the tournament that was held in Egypt in 1993; and a career high of fourth place for the seniors national team in the World Championship in France in 2001. Not to mention, of course, years and years with the African titles to their name, and three appearances in three Olympic games that included a sixth place spot in the Atlanta Games in 1996 and seventh place rank in Sydney 2000.
That decade, however, may well be buried. In the past two years, Ahli lost the handball African clubs championship to club Africain of Tunisia in Morocco in 2001. The national team was placed third in the African championship -- also held in Morocco last year -- after having been humiliated by Tunisia in the semifinals. Algeria was second. The national team went on to lose several international championships before falling down completely at the World Championship in Portugal at the beginning of the year. The team's rank dropped from fourth to 15th. And now, the juniors fell from the third place it achieved in Switzerland two years ago to the 10th place this week in Brazil. With the falling rank came the falling of a coaching era -- the federation announcing the sacking of the Danish head coach Curt Nilsen. The federation used Nilsen as a scapegoat -- blaming him for the failure in an effort to soothe their nerves and a raging public.
Despite the two-year warnings and callings for help for the game, there were no reactions or initiatives taken towards saving Egyptian handball. We heard lots of excuses and explanations about inefficient coaches -- usually foreigners -- being the cause. There was no mention of a poor policy running the game, or an admission to the deterioration of the teams, the players, and the overall level of play.
We have been going from one defeat to another, but we cannot afford it anymore. The last chance for Egyptian handball to remain in the lights is next week's qualifications to the Olympic Games in Athens. The four-day qualification will take place on neutral grounds; in Angola, with four teams competing in a round robin competition. African champions Tunisia and the three runner-ups: Algeria, Egypt and Morocco, will fight for a berth in the Games that will take place next summer. Only the winner will secure that berth. That will be Egypt's last chance to save its history, and for the president of the federation Dr Hassan Moustafa, to save his history as well.
Moustafa is the godfather of the game, and has been the man behind the game's progress and success for the past decade. Unfortunately, Moustafa -- who watched Egyptian handball climb to the top of the world -- has been a silent witness in recent years, giving illogical explanations and unacceptable excuses for the team's downfall in the past two years. Ironically, the demise of Egyptian handball began upon Moustafa's posting as president of the International Handball Federation. Critics are now waving a finger, wondering aloud if there is too much time and effort being invested in international needs, and not much left for Moustafa's own home team. Next week will define, perhaps, the ending of an era.
