Wanted: an out-of-towner

THE EGYPTIAN Football Association (EFA) has accepted the resignation of head coach Mohsen Saleh. Saleh, right, who has been with the team for two years, had said he would quit following a disappointing African Nations Cup that saw Egypt fail to qualify for the second round for the first time since 1992.

EFA head Youssef El-Dahshouri Harb confirmed on Sunday at a press conference that Saleh's resignation had been accepted and added that the next coach to take charge of the Pharaohs would be a foreigner.

The favourite to succeed Saleh is Ruud Krol, the Dutchman who was previously in charge of Egypt in 1996. Krol, who played alongside Johann Cruyff in the famed Dutch World Cup team of 1974, also took temporary charge of the Dutch national side in 2002.

Theo Bucker, coach of African Champions League runners-up Ismaili, is another candidate, especially since the German has worked for more than four years in Egypt.

On Sunday, former Egyptian coach Mahmoud El- Gohari, who took the Pharaohs to the World Cup in 1990 and won the African Nations Cup in 1998, ruled himself out of the running.

Harb said that whoever would be coach, his immediate task would be to prepare the team for the 2006 World Cup qualifiers which start in June.