ALL AFRICA

With a tinge of sadness, Egyptians are waiting for the World Cup kick offs in South Africa in 2010, many wondering bitterly why Egypt's bid to host was unsuccessful. Not even Egypt's successful staging of the Under-20 World Cup in October can salve the wounds opened by Cairo's failure to host the first World Cup in Africa.

Egyptian fans realize that under FIFA's rotation schedule of staging the World Cup in different continents, there is little, if any, chance of them bidding again for another 20 years. Egypt's disappointment at losing out in the 2004 bidding process was even harder to bear because Cairo failed to win even a single vote, despite spending more than $7 million on chasing the honor.

Recalling the debacle, Mohamed Bin Hammam, president of the Asian Football Confederation and a FIFA executive member since 1996, said Egypt never had a chance of staging the 2010 World Cup. "I advised them to retreat. It wasn't their time to apply for hosting it, but they never listen."

But even now, five years later, Egypt's former Youth and Sports Minister Alieddin Hilal, who was in charge of the bid, still believes a 'conspiracy' was behind Cairo's failure. "The reason Egypt didn't get any votes to host the 2010 World Cup was that we refused to bribe any of the FIFA executive board members," he said with certainty.

Egyptian football commentator Alaa Sadek backs the conspiracy theory, even though FIFA has firmly denied any suggestion of bribery in the bidding process. "Bribery is an essential part of the FIFA bidding process," Sadek said. "We had good relations with FIFA, good stadiums and infrastructure, but without bribery you cannot win," he added.

According to Hassan Saqr, president of the National Council for Youth and Sports, which staged the Under-20 World Cup, it is time for Egyptian football to forget the past and look instead to the present and future.

"We worked hard to regain our image by winning the right to stage the Under-20 tournament," he said. "We have proved with this tournament that our security is right, we are a country without diseases, and we have provided excellent stadiums," he added, "And we are the most developed country in Africa in terms of satellite communications."

He revealed that US$30 million was spent on building new stadiums and renovating and upgrading others. Saqr said "political reasons" - which he failed to specify - were behind Egypt's failure to win the 2010 bid. "It is not the time now to discuss such a thing. It is from the past," he added.

But Saqr forecasted that, "The next time Africa gets a chance to host the World Cup, I am sure Egypt will win it." Hany Abo Rida, president of the 2010 local organizing committee and a member of the FIFA executive committee, said that Egypt was unlikely to recoup major economic benefits from its staging of the Under-20 tournament. "But at least it gives us a chance to promote our abilities to host such big events and hopefully we will get to stage a World Cup in the future."