Egypt's national football team is being compared with the teams playing in Euro 2008. There is no doubt who's on the short end, writes Alaa Abdel-Ghani It was bad enough that Egypt tripped up to lowly Malawi in an African World Cup qualifier, even worse that the encounter came smack in the middle of Euro 2008. Comparisons were inevitable. Indeed, for the more cynically minded, they were irresistible. And it's not apples and oranges. More like apples and skyscrapers. On paper the European Championships are second only to the World Cup in global interest. On the ground, now that the World Cup has diluted itself by increasing its number to 32 countries, the Euro is probably the best soccer tournament around. Michel Platini would agree. The great player, now president of the governing body of European soccer, has called Euro 2008 "sizzling". In fact, at times, it has been scorching. The only thing burning on African fields, meanwhile, has been the sun. While Egypt and 46 other African hopefuls trudge through their mostly lifeless World Cup qualifying campaigns, some excellent football is being played in Euro 2008. Holland effectively raised the bar by trouncing 2006 World Cup finalists with a stellar performance that evoked fond memories of the 1970s. The Turks pulled off one of the most memorable soccer comebacks in history. There is much to admire and enjoy in the way that Spain and Portugal are promising to atone for wasted years of underachievement. Winning Euro 2004 was Greece's biggest achievement since the invention of democracy but alas, they couldn't repeat it. It was also expected that the two host nations, Austria and Switzerland, would struggle. For the good of the competition we needed at least one to go through. Nothing doing. It was believed England's absence would dampen the festivities but had England qualified their fans would have spent the last six months trumpeting their usual self-delusions about their national team's prospects. England failed to qualify for this tournament, and now we know why. So many other teams are better. If it's any consolation to those embarrassed by Egyptian low-grade quality compared to Europe at its kaleidoscopic best, the referees in Euro 2008 have at times been as dreadful as some of our own hapless whistleblowers. The game between the Netherlands and Italy prompted a huge debate about whether Ruud van Nistelrooy's goal should have counted. English referee Howard Webb's decision to award Austria an injury-time penalty in their 1-1 draw with Poland might have cost the Poles a place in the quarter-finals. Italy felt hard done by after striker Luca Toni had a goal wrongly ruled offside against Romania (1-1) before the interval. Gamal El-Ghandour, head of Egypt's referees, takes a gentler approach to the Europeans. "The standard of the referees [in Euro 2008] is very good," El-Ghandour told Al-Ahram Weekly by phone, citing Italy's Rosetti, Fandel of Germany, the Swiss Basalla and Michel of Slovakia as examples. "There have been some mistakes, but that's only normal," he added. El-Ghandour adjudicated in Euro 2000 at UEFA's request. From game gaffes to silky soccer we are seeing it all, or are we all seeing it? Millions of Egyptian living rooms cannot tune into the championship, thanks to the era of pay-per-view TV. ART effectively ended free television broadcasts of the World Cup; Al-Jazeera did the rest by winning the sole right to air Euro 2008. Many people, who thought ART would broadcast the event as it has been doing for years with other championships, were caught off guard. Those wanting Al-Jazeera's subscription, or wanting to know why ART was no longer involved, or why they were not informed of the switch in good time, all converged on the offices of Al-Jazeera's subscription outlet Cable Network Egypt. CNE's Maadi branch was reduced to bedlam. It got worse when viewers, thinking they could subscribe just for the tournament, were forced to think again; they had to subscribe for one year if they wanted to watch the 22-day event. Osama Khalil, the editor-in-chief of the sports newspaper Al-Forsan, blames Egyptian TV for insensitivity towards a public in need of distraction and often without the wherewithal to pay for it. "Football is one of the most popular forms of entertainment in the Third Word. Most services presented to the public are subsidised because our salaries cannot pay for everything," so why not subsidise soccer? "To watch Euro 2008, and the Spanish League to boot, costs a Qatari only LE120. Qatar did not make a profit." Khalil argues Egyptian TV should be as selfless as the Gulf state and claims it can generate money from broadcasting rights. "Commercials cover 80 per cent of the cost but ciphering only 20 per cent." There is no such cash-is-everything mindset in Europe. Across the continent Euro 2008 is for free, and what a show it is. Ahmed Abdel-Alim, director of Nile TV's Sports Mania, says a drone filming from above the heads of the players and spectators, and tiny cameras fixed to transparent wires stretching around the pitches and shooting from every conceivable angle, are two techniques that have never employed in, for example, the Africa Cup of Nations. For good reason, says Abdel-Alim: "The financial means and technical know- how are very different from here." And so, too, is the football. Additional reporting Ghada Abdel-Kader
