Egyptian soccer chiefs’ heads roll

“The whole of the national team’s coaching staff also tendered their resignation,” the paper said.

Mubarak had asked the Prime Minister for an “urgent report” into Thursday’s shock 5-1 defeat in Confederations Cup in Mexico City following widespread public outrage.

The president told the government newspapers he wanted “all the details and reasons for the mediocre performance” so that he could “punish those responsible.”

Mubarak had proudly greeted the team from the plane after it won the African Nations Cup in 1998, but only riot police andsecurity forces were at Cairo airport overnight Sunday to protect them from the public.

In the event an angry crowd never materialized but riot police were out in force again last evening for the crunch football federation meeting.

The team’s trainer Fathi Mabruk accused the referee of bias toward the Saudis. “If three of the Saudis had been sent off, as was the case for Egypt, the score would have been 10 to 0 for Egypt,” he told reporters.

But the defeat stunned the millions of Egyptians who followed the match on television in their homes or at open-air cafes, hotels and outside store windows.

A retired man and a worker died in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria following “a sudden surge in blood pressure due to their anger over the team’s defeat,” the government daily Al-Ahram reported.

The team’s performance knocked even the Middle East peace process off the front pages of the Cairo newspapers.

UEFA rips timing of cup

BERLIN: A top German UEFA official ripped the timingof international tournaments like the Confederations Cup as harmful to European soccer in an interview released yesterday.

“These tournaments come at the wrong time. We can’t enter them without making a sacrifice that hurts other competitions,” Gerhard Aigner, general secretary of European soccer’s governing body, told Kicker magazine.

Battle of weary losers

GUADALAJARA: Weary but unbowed from four hard-fought games apiece, the United States and Saudi Arabia face off late tonight for the third place in the Confederations Cup football tournament.

Both teams practiced hard yesterday but their coaches said the heavy playing schedule hadn’t given their teams enough time to rest.

“We’re in good condition for this game, the team is a little tired physically and mentally, but we’re planning to prepare to play well,” said US coach Bruce Arena, whose squad is coming off surprising 2-0 victory over Germany and a 1-0 overtime loss to Mexico.

Mexico and Brazil will play tomorrow for thetitle.

“It’s difficult for managers to prepare a team and have to play in such a short period of time,” Arena said. “I imagine that likewise for Saudi Arabia, it’s difficult to travel and play in such a short period.”

Arena said his squad isn’t familiar with the Saudi’s style of play. But defender Marcelo Balboa predicted the Saudis would come out playing hard for the third-place berth. Saudi coach Milan Macala had his own concerns.

“It’s hard on the players’ health to have a tournament of five matches in 10 days. The organisers should reconsider this and plan a lighter schedule,” said Macala, whose team is coming off disappointing 8-2 loss to Brazil.