11:48 PM
Tuesday 02 June 2020
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Books- Omar Qora:
Viktin Gezmjian, former director of public relations and information in the Confederation of African Football, from 1988 to 2003, revealed the scenes of setting the criteria for choosing the Century Club in Africa, which crowns Al-Ahly with its award.
“We got the idea of the Century Club from the International Federation for History and Statistics IFFHS, which in 1991 compiled the teams on an annual basis,” said Vicen Gezmjian, hosted by the “Zamalek” channel on Tuesday evening.
He added: “In 1994, before the African Nations Championship in Tunisia in January, Mostafa Mourad Fahmy said he wanted to follow in the footsteps of the International Federation for History and Statistics by making a classification of African clubs with a points system.”
He continued: “I did not participate in setting the criteria for choosing the Century Club, as my mission was to calculate the club points according to the points system set by Mustafa Murad Fahmy, and he asked me to calculate them and write them in the computer and bulletins.”
He continued: “I do not know whether Mustafa Murad Fahmy put it alone or not, and I believe that he consulted the technical director of the African Union at that time, and he is Abdou Salih Al-Wahsh, former head of Al-Ahly.”
He stressed: “Mustafa Murad Fahmy cannot do anything without the approval of Issa Hayatou, the head of CAF or the technical and organizational department.”
He continued: “It was just an idea without any goal and was for the media goal only, and there was no reaction, whether from the Zamalek club or an African club.”
He explained: “The classification was published through the official website only, caf news, which was issued in both English and French, and the national federations or clubs were not notified. We were content with flyers and were not issued continuously every year.”
He continued: “I was not convinced of the criteria of the African Union to choose the Century Club because I did not give him importance and did not blame Zamalek for not protesting, and I tended to count the Century Club with the number of tournaments because Zamalek is the Century Club.”
He stressed: “I see that Zamalek was wronged for not obtaining the title of Century Club, and it was assumed that the Zamalek Council would then submit an official protest to the International Sports Court.”
He continued: “I was the only Zamalek in the African Union, and I completely separated that from my work in enough. All the cadres during the era of Issa Hayatou belonged to Al-Ahly, Amr Mostafa Fahmy, despite his divine inclinations, was committed to his job as General Secretary of the African Union.”
The former director of media relations for the African Union concluded, “I must be fair, Mustafa Mourad Fahmy is the one who set the standards, but I cannot judge his intention, and it was only after the approval of Issa Hayatou.”
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