Half-time:
Please be quiet
By
Inas Mazhar
While the national football team made a successful debut at the African Nations Cup in Tunisia with a deserved 2- 1 victory over Zimbabwe, some disturbing comments by the team's star striker have revealed that not all is rosy.
Ahmed 'Mido' Hossam, who was shown the red card during the team's final friendly, against Burkina Faso in Port Said before flying to Tunisia for the ANC, has accused his teammates of ignoring him in order to ruin his image in front of officials and fans. According to the player's account of his sending off, which was for rough tackling, "Normally, in such cases, I would find some of my teammates standing next to me, giving me moral support. I'm not asking them to fight alongside me because it's not a battle, just a normal dispute on the field. But their presence would have given me more courage and confidence and it would definitely have had an effect on the referee.
"But they left me. Some stood far off, looking at me as if I had committed a crime. They must have done that on purpose, to ruin my reputation. I had to tell them off as I was leaving the pitch."
Mido, who at the tender age of 20 has amassed a huge European following to become the most successful Egyptian footballer fame-wise, went on to accuse his teammates of being "careless, reckless, undisciplined, unprofessional, unreliable and pampered". The player, who plays for Marseilles and was previously in Ajax Amsterdam, told several newspapers that the players, though older in the main, had no idea of what it was like to be a professional and said the national team would never achieve success if that was to be the attitude among the players. He added that some of the players did not deserve to don the jersey of the national team.
Surprisingly, according to some reports, some of Mido's accusations have proven correct. The team's training camp, for example, was hardly as strict as was previously reported, for Mido claims he did not sleep one night with the team.
Mido's highly-charged remarks have been offset by the calmness exuded by head coach Mohsen Saleh who has shown complete confidence in the team and is optimistic about Egypt's chances in the ANC on the basis of the team's warm-up results. In its last eight friendlies, the country has won six and drew twice.
Still, it was Mido's statements that have created controversy and naturally drawn much more media responses. If anything, they reveal that the national team is split and is living under a cloud, lacking the harmony and the spirit that are needed to push the players forward.
It is hoped Mido and company will bury the hatchet so that the team as a whole can concentrate on the task at hand: winning the ANC title for a record fifth time. Even if some or all of Mido's accusations are true, the ANC in Tunisia is certainly not the time or place to make them.
