The Egyptian Football Association (EFA) decided to select a national technical staff to lead the national football team in the next period The decision was taken Sunday after Portuguese coach Neul turned down the Egyptian offer. The EFA had before decided to select a foreign coach for the job to lead the Pharaohs in the coming remaining two matches in the qualifications of the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations and continue until 2014, s Inas Mazhar writes. The Portuguese was a top favourite for the job because he has worked in Egypt before as head coach for both the Egyptian Olympic team and the Zamalek club. He had a very good knowledge of Egyptian football and the local players as well, which meant he would not start all over again and will save time any other foreign coach may face getting to know the country, its football and the players. named two fellow countrymen to work with him; one as an assistant coach and the other as a fitness coach. The EFA agreed and offered a deal of 40,000 euros a month for and his two Portuguese assistants. But declined the offer and is expected to accept another offer to coach the China National team for 80,000 euros to him alone. According to EFA media director Azmi Megahed, the new technical staff of the Pharaohs will be all Egyptian; the head coach, the assistants and the rest of the 10- man crew. Meanwhile, top favourite to take over and replace Hassan Shehata is Talaat Youssef who has led Ittihad El Shorta, known as the Police Federation team, to a fourth- place finish at the national league competition which ended last week. However, Youssef faces a problem. A day before the EFA put him on top of the list of candidates, he signed a new contract to train al Masri of Port Said and the club board chairman Kamel Abu Aly refuses to release him of the contract. Negotiations are currently going on between the EFA and the Masri Club's officials. Another nominee is Shawki Gharieb, the former assistant coach of Hassan Shehata who shared all the achievements with him and knows the players very well. Gharieb is free as he has not signed with any club yet and is backed by the EFA vice president Hani Abu Rida and some other EFA board members.
