EFA opposes Egyptian participation at CHAN

CAIRO –15 October 2017: Egyptian Football Association (EFA) board member Karam Kordy said he is against the participation of Egypt’s local national team in the 2018 African Nations Championship (CHAN).

CAF announced recently that Morocco replaced Kenya as the hosts of the 2018 CHAN after Kenya was stripped of the rights to host the competition.

Following the designation of Morocco as hosts, Egypt, which was beaten by Morocco in the Northern Zone playoffs, qualified for the tournament.

Egypt’s unexpected qualification to the tournament raises concerns of the impact the championship will have on local leagues.

“We don’t want problems with club presidents as they will use this tournament to blame us for any bad results,” Kordy said.

Kordy also said that there are two options for this situation; one is to participate in the tournament with a strong team and to put the local league on hold.

The Egyptian League is meant to end on May 25 while CHAN will run from January 12 to February 4.

“As for the second option, if there are no fines imposed on teams that withdraw from the tournament, I am against participating in CHAN,” he added.

“Taking part in this competition will put us in a complicated situation especially given that we have a chance to perform well in the World Cup.”