EGYPT: The president and the goalie

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The goalkeeper of Egypt’s famous Ahli soccer club recently made front-page news after he sneaked off to Europe to play for a Swiss team, leaving his club in disarray and dividing his countrymen over the legitimacy of his action.

The passion around Essam El-Hadari intensified when President Hosni Mubarak intervened. He urged the Egyptian Football Federation to clear up the matter and allow the goalie to try his luck in Switzerland without losing his spot on the Egyptian national team.

The meddling raised questions about the 79-year-old leader’s priorities. While Egypt is being rocked by labor strikes, anti-inflation demonstrations and pro-Palestinian protests, Mubarak shows more concern for football players, some observers argued.

“There is a paradox here,” prominent writer Osama Okasha was quoted in an independent local newspaper as saying. “The president intervenes in the crisis at a time where the Egyptian people are facing many problems, most importantly, problems that pertain to getting their own food.”

The state-owned local press was also criticized for headlining Mubarak’s statement in Hadari’s favor on front pages, which was seen as an attempt to deflect people’s attention from major domestic and regional turbulence.

— Noha El-Hennawy in Cairo