Egypt could finish no higher than 14th in the 24-team World Handball Championship recently held in Croatia. The result is slightly better than 17th two years ago, 15th in 2003, and in 2005, 14th. But it s mega miles away from our semi-final appearance in 2001, the first non-European country to reach the last four of what is essentially the World Cup of handball. Much of the credit for those high-flying years, starting from the mid-90s, goes to Hassan Mustafa, until recently the head of the Egyptian Handball Federation (EHF). Although no longer the EHF head - his tenure ending only last month - much of the blame for the precipitous slide thereafter of Egyptian handball must also go to Mustafa. These days Mustafa is feeling the heat not only at home but abroad. Mustafa is still president of the International Handball Federation (IHF) but if the reports spewing forth are accurate, he might not remain president much longer. A three-minute German YouTube clip dubbed in English entitled Hassan Mustafa in self-service store accuses Mustafa of new irregularities and misuse of authority. The narrator describes Mustafa s current predicament as his worst since taking over the IHF eight years ago, and that he is embroiled in a financial scandal which could conceivably precipitate his downfall. According to the report, since 2000, Mustafa has spent just under ?500,000 in travel expenses without showing purchase receipts. It said that for years Mustafa had withheld travel receipts from his own federation. A studio audience is shown footage of Mustafa procuring, for what is claimed the first time, never-before-seen flight tickets to the show s reporter as evidence of travel expenses. However, not before an IHF auditor, Jurg Steib, is interviewed as asking, How can we check? We need greater financial transparency. It is said that Steib and an external company of auditors decided that starting from January 2007, all elected members and IHF appointees were no longer to receive payments without providing documented proof of expenditures. No, no I won t comply, Mustafa vehemently tells his questioner. It all must be based on trust. The Internet pummeling of Mustafa continues. E-mails sent from abroad by organizers of something called The Action Committee for Clean Handball are presently making the rounds among some Egyptian journalists. The e-mails, written in several languages, are damning in its indictments of Mustafa. One message asserts: Mustafa has now completely sidelined Peter Mühlematter, the honorary IHF secretary-general, barring him from entering the headquarters of the IHF in Basel. Mühlematter was asked by an employee of the office to return the key. Mühlematter is no longer kept informed of events, only obtains fragmentary information about incoming and outgoing posts, and is not allowed to attend meetings and negotiations which fall within the terms of reference of the executive. This raises an urgent question: Is Mustafa abusing his powers in the case of the secretary-general? Meanwhile, Is handball in danger of being thrown out of the Olympic Program? is the title of another portion of the e-mail. Reiner Witte certainly thinks it is possible, the e-mail said. According to the president of the German National Handball League, If nothing changes, handball's Olympic status will be in jeopardy. There is plenty to suggest that handball, an Olympic sport since 1972, will be excluded, causing it to sink into obscurity, continues the e-mail. The reason lies with the International Handball Federation which is still not fulfilling fundamental Anti-Doping requirements. An urgent letter sent by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), and seen by this publication, has so far been ignored by the IHF. The medical commission's budget for 2008 was simply scrapped by Egyptian IHF President Hassan Mustafa and Spanish treasurer Miguel Roca, attributes the e-mail to Hans Holdhaus, an Austrian anti-doping expert. The IHF leadership decided on short notice to disband the IHF Anti-Doping unit. Nobody knows the reason. It's incomprehensible. The Olympic status is absolutely at risk, confirms Holdhaus in the e-mail. To date, the e-mail adds, the IHF has not allowed a single pre-competition doping control, as confirmed by the WADA letter. The situation, the e-mail contends, is damaging the working climate at the office in Basel and causing divided loyalties and conflicts of interest among the staff. Uncertainty in the administration and fears over jobs are growing. The e-mail ends on another ominous note, this concerning Mustafa s plan to run for a third IHF term when elections are held in June. According to statements made by staff members, the email claims money is currently being spent liberally for electoral purposes. Reports that aim specifically to demonize must be looked at skeptically. Many of them are produced by people with an axe to grind. Many cannot be independently verified; many are one-sided; many are trumped up. All are meant to tarnish an image. Some of the stuff could be true, perhaps not. We won t know unless we are given a rebuttal. Mustafa should reply to the charges leveled against him. Even if he thinks he is above answering to the accusations, it would be wise to shoot back so that the public hears the other side. Only then can they make up their own minds.
