The directors of the 2006 African Nations Cup that Egypt will be hosting tell Inas Mazhar they are sure there is enough time Most Egyptian government plans have five-year life spans. In this instance, however, that time frame has been cut down to one year. That is the time left before the start of the 2006 African Nations Cup (ANC), the premier football event of the continent, which Egypt is hosting. Hani , head of the championship's organising committee, is certain that one year is enough to prepare not just the national team but indeed the country to host the tournament. "Ever since the organising committee was named a month ago we started serious preparations," told Al-Ahram Weekly. From the 11th floor of the Youth Ministry where the committee has set up shop. "Our main concern now is to secure accommodations for the teams and complete the renovations of stadiums." Four venues will host the event -- Cairo, Alexandria, Ismailia and Port Said. "The venues already have the infrastructure. They were the venues for the World Under-17 World Cup in 1997. But there must be some renovating in order to transform them into world-class stadiums." Aswan was excluded and was replaced by Ismailia. said the Upper Egyptian city, 1,000 kilometres south of Cairo, was taken off the list for being exceptionally far. "The city is capable of hosting four teams. The stadium is okay and so is the accommodation because it is a tourist city. "But we want all the teams to be near each other, within the same area. Aswan would require high costs in transportation." , who is also a member of the Egyptian Football Association, did not underestimate the challenge ahead. "In the 1986 championship [the last time Egypt hosted the ANC], we were dealing with eight teams. The number has now doubled to 16." Tournament executive director Hisham El- Kheishen said the ANC will be run differently than other tournaments. "We want to save time and our budget," said. "We don't want to waste time on meetings, discussing the same things every time. In our modern world, there are several means to deal with such tasks like mobiles, faxes and e-mails. We can do these things quickly and thus not waste time on meetings." El-Kheishen is a civil engineer whose selection as tournament director raised eyebrows because of his scant connection with football. But he defended himself, saying that working in sports marketing for the past three years had helped tremendously. "Being an executive and an administrator helped me in getting aquatinted with football, especially in terms of marketing and organisation. "I also made a lot of contacts. The only thing I am not familiar with is playing the game but I won't be playing in 2006. I'll be running the show." El-Kheishen said a masters schedule had been drawn up. "A committee concerned will only start working according to a master plan, meaning that if a committee's plans require that it starts working six months before the kick-off, then it will start work as scheduled, not before and not after. There is no point in committees working before schedule. We want to save money as much as possible," El-Kheishen said. The tournament's logo, mascot and slogan will all be unveiled by the middle of next month. "In two weeks, we will have received all such proposals from national and multinational firms concerning the designs," El- Kheishen said. "We will study them, then make our decision in conjunction with the African federation."
