Hope you're feeling bad
By
Inas Mazhar
Egyptian football, always in the persona of the national team, has hit rock bottom. After their huge failure at the African Nations Cup, the team has reached a dead end. Does it hurt?
While Morocco and Tunisia were playing the final, the Egyptian national team was watching the game on TV. Hopefully, they feel remorse and are bitter for missing out on the fun. Because I really do wonder if Egyptian footballers and officials feel the slightest jealousy or envy at the teams who reached the final of the most prestigious sports event on the continent. I hope they are; if not, then there is something dreadfully wrong.
The point is not only were we eliminated from the tournament's first round for the first time in 12 years. Nor that our Olympic and Under-20 teams also recently bit the dust. The problem is in the way the issue has been dealt with. Every time the national team is beaten in a major tournament, headlines fill the newspapers, making even front page news. The Egyptian Football Association, the head coach and the players are all lashed at viciously.
Then, magically it seems, everything is forgotten and bygones are bygones. Time heals all -- even stupendous defeats.
The case this time is no different. Head coach Mohsen Saleh, his players and the EFA have all been blamed for the ANC crash. The People's Assembly summoned the minister of youth and EFA officials, demanding that a thorough investigation be made, but that prior to the inquest, they resign as well. The media, as is customary, has not ceased to attack anybody associated with football in the country.
Each one was pointed to as the reason for Egypt's abysmal performance. The EFA was blamed for running football without clear-cut policies. Others believe the players let the nation down while Saleh was accused of not being able to put together the best team possible.
As the reasons for the failure were pointed out, some solutions also arose: dissolving the EFA, changing the coaching methods and organising a disciplined national league championship that does not stop every two weeks.
In the midst of this fiasco, the EFA continued ignoring calls from many quarters to resign and instead continued their quest for a new head coach for the national team, a diversionary tactic to turn the public's attention to the future rather than the past.
Actually the EFA has met with some success in turning the public's attention away from Tunisia and onto a new, albeit well- travelled route: that of who is the best to lead the Pharaohs, an Egyptian or a foreigner? Some believe that a foreign coach is preferable. Others believe that a national coach is better as an Egyptian would be better placed to understand the Egyptian mentality. Those who support a national coach are supported by the fact that Egypt reached the 1990 World Cup and claimed the African Nations Cup in 1998 under Mahmoud El-Gohari. They believe El-Gohari, who has had four different spells with the team, is the answer to Egyptian football.
The point is that a new head coach is the talk of the town now. Resignations and calls to improve Egyptian football is now history.
Egypt's players should take note of what happened after they left Tunisia. The hosts and runner-up Morocco gave us a terrific final. Most of the players on both teams are newcomers. So, too, are their management. Yet the two teams displayed world class football in all aspects throughout the tournament and deservedly reached the final.
We really hope the Egyptians who made us red-faced in Tunisia are feeling blue right now.
