Moorosi Tsiane
IMMEDIATELY after his team’s disappointing elimination from the AFCON competition which they are hosting, Egypt Football Association (EFA) President Hany Abu Reida tendered his resignation.
Reida also challenged all the members of the EFA board to resign while at the same time he sacked the technical team which was led by the Mexican mentor Javier Aguirre.
Although Egypt maintained a 100 percent record in the group stages beating Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda, they didn’t look promising and I wasn’t shocked to see them getting an early boot despite being the hosts and the most successful team in the competition with a record seven titles.
For Egypt to be eliminated at home by South Africa, who also had a sickly start to their campaign and qualified for the round of 16 through the back door as one of the best third placed teams; was indeed humiliating for the hosts.
Unlike many African sports administrators Reida did the most sensible thing by listening to the Egyptians when they called for his resignation.
He had failed the Egyptians as the head of the football body because there was no use in changing the coaches while the administration remains the same?
The Pharaohs’ exit from Africa’s most prestigious football competition comes a year after their debacle at the World Cup in Russia where they lost all their three group matches.
How I wish our very own sports administrators could follow in the footsteps of this gentleman.
The fact that Reida listened to the nation’s outcry shows that he has self-esteem and realised the importance of giving space to new ideas.
Reida’s tenure at EFA dates back to the late 80s and it was eminent that he has run out of ideas, so he needed to give chance to fresh ideas which will restore Egypt’s African football powerhouse status.
The last time Egypt won the AFCON tournament was back in 2010 also wining it for the third consecutive time (2006, 2008 and 2010) and they were the runners-up to Cameroon in 2017.
I hope even our administrations here in Lesotho have learnt something out of this debacle especially those heading our different underperforming federations.
You would be shocked to see people who have been clinging to power in various federations claiming that they got nothing from their involvement in sports administration.
The fact that there are just so many fights in the different local federations shows how misdirected we are as the nation. People fight for power yet they never deliver as evidenced by our national teams who have become perennial whipping boys.
I hope the ladies and gentleman in different capacities of leading our sports have learnt from Reida because they are in their positions to serve the nation instead of their own egos.
