The coronavirus has affected many sports events around the world and is showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon. KingFut’s Ali Ismail discusses how the Egyptian FA could benefit from this situation.
Like most sporting events around the world, the Egyptian Premier League (and all other competitions organized by the EFA) was suspended due to the coronavirus outbreak.
As boring as our lives have been without the beautiful game, this suspension could be a blessing in disguise and could benefit the future of the game in our country on the long term.
READ: Egypt FA: Cancelling the Premier League is not in our plans
Here’s a look at the key points the EFA should look at as to why this season’s Egyptian Premier League should be suspended.
Medical reasons:
Compared to many countries around the globe, Egypt has a low count of people who contracted the disease, with just 5000 confirmed cases.
Nonetheless, the virus is highly contagious and can be easily transmitted from one person to another.
Therefore, organizing events such as football matches is quite risky. Even though there are solutions to minimize contact between players and staff, such as not allowing them to shake hands before kick-off, the disease can be spread in many different ways.
Additionally, these matches need a lot of personnel in order to take place such as groundskeepers, security personnel and press representatives who can easily catch the disease and eventually transmit it to those around them.
READ: EFA reveal plans for Egyptian Premier League amid COVID-19 outbreak
Allowing clubs to properly prepare for the new season:
If football activities are to return normally in the coming months, it would mean that football teams will have a preparation period of no longer than one month. This wouldn’t just influence their player’s performances on the pitch due to their poor physical conditions but it could also make them more injury-prone down the line.
Having a two to three month preseason period is essential to allow these athletes to get reacquainted to the game’s high intensity and prepare both physically and mentally for the upcoming challenges.
Players will also have the chance to further understand their coach’s plans and ideas, making it easier for them to apply them in game situations. This would automatically increase the competition within the league.
And on a more corporate note, this will also be an opportunity for club boards to re-arrange their finances and potential transfer targets, which gives equal opportunities for all teams.
Establishing an organized schedule:
I think it’s fair to say that since the 2011 revolution Egyptian football has lost a lot of its magic, mainly due to the absence of fans in the stadiums but also due to the EFA’s organization or lack thereof.
This can be seen in the poor scheduling implemented by Egypt’s football governing body. On many occasions we have seen teams go for a long period of times without any domestic games due to their ‘heavy continental schedule’.
This created an imbalance in the league table as we saw clubs such as Al Ahly sit in the lower tier of the table last season and were even in the relegation zone mid-season because they had over five games in hand, before they eventually played all of their postponed matches and won the league.
This generates an unfair advantage to teams who are competing in continental tournaments, who already have an edge over their rivals due to their financial prowess.
Taking their time to implement a proper schedule that takes into consideration all of these factors is crucial for the EFA if they hope to improve the competition in the league.
READ: Abou-Rida announces intention to run for EFA presidency
Transparent rules and regulations:
Over the years we have witnessed many scandals within the Egyptian footballing scene, whether its regarding transfers, scheduling issues or just plain corruption.
We’ve seen players such as Ahmed El-Sheikh sign for two clubs at once, Al Ahly and Zamalek. While other players such as Abdallah El-Said or Sherif Abdelfadil saw registration periods open just for them in order to complete their moves to Pyramids FC and Al Ahly, respectively.
Moreover, we saw clubs who compete in continental or regional competitions change their schedule depending on their availability without considering the EFA’s agenda.
These problems usually occur due to the absence of transparency regarding the FA’s rules and regulations.
The solution to this problem would be for them to write or rewrite these rules and share them with all competing clubs and the public. This would enable the FA to have more control over its competitions and would force clubs to understand that there are repercussions to their actions.
Cancelling the Egyptian Premier League is no easy decision as there are many factors to take into account (champions, relegations, etc). However I believe that if done right it could be a turning point for modern Egyptian football.
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