Egypt's Ministry of Youth and Sports has taken several major decisions following the current monetary currency issue. The decisions come as part of the austerity plan for the sports industry which depends on mainly foreign currency. The decisions include no more hiring of foreign coaches to train national teams and that payment to current coaches should be in Egyptian pounds, not dollars. No sports federation is allowed to sign up a foreign coach or even renew a contract without the approval of the ministry. Current foreign coaches are, as of the beginning of November, to receive their salaries in Egyptian pounds according to the currency exchange rate set by the Central Bank of Egypt. However, the decision does not include Egypt's Argentine football manager Hector Cuper and taekwondo's Spanish head coach. “We are part of this nation and should also review our resources to be able to meet austerity measures that most of the sectors of the country are taking,” said sports minister Khaled Abdel-Aziz. “We have excluded Mr Cuper from this decision because the Egyptian Football Association already has sponsors and resources that generate foreign currency to the EFA from which they can pay their head coach. They have always been paying and the ministry has never paid anything to a foreign coach. The same will apply to sports clubs and federations if they have sponsors who can afford to pay.” President of the Egyptian Football Association Hani Abu Reda told Al-Ahram Weekly that they have no problem in paying Cuper his salary in dollars. “We have many sponsors for our national team who pay in dollars. Our participation in international events is paid in dollars and we receive our prizes all in dollars which keeps us on track,” Abu Reda, a FIFA executive committee member, said. National teams will no longer have the luxury of holding training camps abroad. Instead, sports federations will use the nation's sports facilities to train. The decisions, taken after a meeting between Abdel-Aziz and the president of the National Olympic Committee Hisham Hatab, board member Sherif Al-Erian and executive director Mamdouh Shehstawi, also included reducing the Egyptian delegation scheduled to take part at the Islamic Solidarity Games scheduled in June 2017. It was decided that the national committee is to participate with only one individual sport to be selected by the board. Egypt will also temporarily suspend its participation in any Arab championship until the economic situation improves. Furthermore, sports federations are to reduce their representation in international federation meetings, conferences and congresses held abroad to only one representative instead of a whole delegation that used to comprise up to five officials. The decisions are intended to run until the end of the fiscal year 2016/2017. Hatab said that the salaries of foreign coaches in Egypt cost sports federations $70,000 monthly. “We have foreign coaches in archery, athletics, shooting, rowing, basketball and boxing and in the middle of this economic crisis this sum of money is huge,” he said, adding that the NOC addressed these federations who will notify their foreign coaches that payment in Egyptian pounds would replace the dollar so they can decide whether to stay; the final call is theirs. Hatab said that the Spanish coach of the Olympic Games taekwondo bronze medalist Hedaya Malak is an exception “considering his remarkable achievement with Egypt's Olympic champion and his future plans for Tokyo 2020,” Hatab told the Weekly.
