The head of Egyptian handball takes the blame for the team's dreadful showing at the world championship, reports Inas Mazhar Hassan Mustafa, president of the Egyptian Handball Federation, has taken responsibility for the failure of the team at the recently concluded world championship. The squad finished in 15th place in the championship, held in Portugal last month, dropping from 4th to 15th in the world rankings. Last year, the team also lost its African title to arch-rivals Tunisia. And because Egypt dropped out of the top 10, it will be forced to qualify for the All-Africa Games, the Olympic Games and the next world championship. Three weeks after the defeat in Portugal, Mustafa broke his silence. "We are responsible," he told reporters at a press conference held at the headquarters of the federation in Nasr City. "We admit it but this is not the end of the world. It's sport and you can't keep on winning all the time. We have to accept that as sportsmen. There are times when one loses." Mustafa cited several examples of nations who were at one time world champions but who no longer exist as a handball power. "Romania was four- time world champion but for the past decade has failed to qualify for the world championship finals," Mustafa said. "Sweden, three times a world champion, was ranked 13th this year while Russia was fifth." Mustafa added that head coach Yugoslav Zoran was primarily to blame for the team's losses, though Zoran led the team to fourth place in the world and the African title two years ago. "Zoran left following Egypt's success in the 2001 world championships," Mustafa said. "With a new Croatian coach we lost the African championship. We called Zoran back, however, we admit that this time he was different and that we didn't take action when we started losing." According to Mohamed El-Alfi, Zoran's assistant who now takes over as coach, Zoran was testing a whopping 34 players for the team "and we didn't know exactly what he wanted. He dropped some key players like captain Gohar Nabil and Hazem Awad three months before the championship, then recalled them two weeks before it. During that period they had not trained. He also added inexperienced juniors to the team." Mustafa agreed with El-Alfi, saying they felt the danger but decided inaction was better. "The public wouldn't have forgiven us if we had sacked him before the world championship or even during it," Mustafa said of Zoran. "They would blame us more than they do now. We experienced this before when we sacked the Croatian coach during the African championship in Morocco last year. When we lost the title and ended up in fourth, the media and fans blamed us for axing the coach. We couldn't afford to repeat the same situation." El-Alfi and Fawzi Fadali have been appointed as the team's head coach and assistant. For the time being, Mustafa said, the federation has no intention of recruiting a foreign coach. Mustafa revealed that as president of the international federation as well, he was currently working on amending the points system which was used in the world championship and which he described as unfair. "It is a failure and I'm against it. We are working on improving it. This system was behind the downfall of many teams. And nearly all the participants complained." He said the system was put in place before he took over as president In the past year, Mustafa has been accused of being unable to follow the progress of the national team because of being too busy with the international federation. "I haven't neglected the Egyptian Federation. I've been following the team as well as the rest of the federation's activities. Whenever I'm in Egypt I attend all the tournaments, juniors and seniors," he said. "I travel across Egypt to watch matches. Those who demand I quit the Egyptian Federation don't understand. When I was elected president of the international federation I wanted to leave but couldn't because I would have been accused of quitting my national post for an international one." Mustafa said he also did not want to appear disloyal to the local organisation "through which I was granted the chance to enter the international federation. But if it is going to cause a problem now, I'm ready to leave. It would be a relief for me." Mustafa urged Egyptians to back the team if it had to start from scratch. "Egyptian handball has succeeded before because of the support shown by officials and fans and the confidence given in the players. Give them the chance again and they will stand on their feet once more. Please don't slaughter them." "Our first mission is to qualify for the All-Africa Games in Ethiopia starting 15 April," El-Alfi said. "That's easy, however, the hard part will be in June in Angola" for qualifications to the Olympic Games starting 15 June. "It will be a fierce battle among Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt and Morocco. Only the winner will represent Africa in Athens 2004," said El-Alfi. This time, El-Alfi added, the federation will call up just 22 players. Sixteen will eventually represent the nation.
