By Inas Mazhar I wonder if our sports officials understand the implications if the Egyptian Football Association's elections are not held as scheduled? FIFA might intervene and accordingly the association might be suspended. I guess that wouldn't be in favour of either Egyptian football or the organising of the 2006 African Nations Cup which we are hosting next January. Following Egypt's ouster from the 2004 African Nations Cup in Tunisia, the association, then headed by Dahshouri Harb, was dissolved. This though was described by FIFA as an anti- democratic move since the world governing body opposes government interference in sports federations. A new committee, headed by Essam Abdel-Moneim, was appointed to run the association for six months after which elections would take place in September 2004. FIFA agreed and sports officials as well as the media approved. The new committee started working towards improving football conditions in Egypt but promised that they would not run for the elections and that their job would end by the end of the six months. During that period, the association's regulations were amended and approved by the then youth minister, Anas El- Feki, as well as FIFA. One major change which has created controversy until now was the number of the association's members who have the right to vote in the elections. It used to be 120 but Abdel- Moneim reduced the figure to 40, an amendment described by some officials as favouring Abdel-Moneim himself. For reasons that persuaded only a few, the elections were rescheduled for October, then December, then May, and finally 10 June, extending the six month- period to almost 15 months. Every change of date was sent to FIFA which constantly warned that it would take legal action. At any rate, candidates began launching their election campaigns and for the first time in the history of the association, there were as many as eight candidates running for the presidency. Abdel-Moneim was one of them -- though he had previously promised not to run. The new youth minister, Mamdouh El-Beltagui, has been questioned in the People's Assembly over reducing the number of clubs and youth centres who have the right to vote in the elections. The deputy who was asking wondered out loud why a club like Cement Suez, which plays in the Premier League, does not have the right to vote according to the new regulations. El-Beltagui studied the amendments and increased the number of members who can vote to 84. Consequently, Abdel-Moneim resigned in protest at the interference of the Youth Ministry, saying he could not work under such conditions. Once again, a new committee was formed, headed by a former coach, Abdou Saleh El-Wahsh, to run the association until the elections. Naturally, the names of all the candidates were erased by the resignation of Abdel-Moneim. Earlier this week, the door was reopened for new candidates. It is going from worse to worse. Sayed Metwalli, the president of Misri football club, attacked referee Mohamed El- Sayed during half-time of the Misri-Zamalek FA cup match. El-Sayed wanted to call the match off but Abdel-Moneim advised him not to for security reasons. The EFA fined Metwalli LE25,000 and banned him from attending his club's matches until the end of the season. But the decision really had no teeth. In Italy, when riots broke out during the Milan-Inter derby, the referee cancelled the match without caring a fig about security concerns. And when Zamalek was eventually ousted by Misri in the second leg, Zamalek's new president Mortada Mansour, threatened to boycott EFA competitions unless Zamalek were declared the outright winner. (Of course Zamalek withdrew their complaint because the penalty for pulling out of the EFA would have been a LE300,000 fine and a deduction of nine points in the league championship which would almost certainly mean relegation to the first division, unheard of for a club the stature of Zamalek). Several problems face Egyptian football but the hope is that the elections will run smoothly and as scheduled, and that a new federation will prepare for the Nations Cup, the most important event ahead, in relative peace and quiet.
