Whisper it quietly but the toppling of President Hosni Mubarak, often dubbed The Last Pharaoh, could also inadvertently end the reign of Egypt's national football team - aka the Pharaohs - as African champions.

For even though football has become understandably trivial to millions of fans and players, the revolution's timing couldn't really be worse for a country that has traditionally dominated the African game.

Next month the team, which has won the last three Africa Cup of Nations (and a record seven overall), travel to South Africa for a game where defeat would leave last year's World Cup hosts six points clear in Group G with only three qualifiers left and the North Africans with a mountain to climb.



The national team's African triumphs were a rare source of pride, joy and entertainment for many Egyptians under Mubarak's regime, but the Pharaohs' reign is facing a stiff test.

"If we lose in South Africa, we'll be out of the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations," says Egyptian FA (EFA) official Amr Abu Elez. "The bare minimum we need is a draw."

Amongst myriad problems for national coach Hassan Shehata is the fact that his Pharaohs side started their qualifying group more sluggishly than a well-fed sloth, with a home draw against Sierra Leone, which was then topped by a 1-0 defeat away to ever-improving Niger.

But the revolution has thrown up other challenges, with the protests causing the league's suspension in late January - a real problem for Shehata when 90% of his squad are based at home (Sunderland's Ahmed Elmohamady is one of a handful who play outside).

The cancellation of the 9 February friendly against the United States compounded matters although better news came when many teams started training again this week, with Cairo giants Al Ahly holding a minute's silence for the protestors who died.

Yet any league action before early March is unlikely since there's no saying when the EFA will receive permission from the security forces to restart.

To minimise the impact, the EFA is planning to send the Pharaohs to Oman to ramp up their preparations and they could probably do with some time out of Egypt - not just to regain focus, but also because Shehata and his players were often widely criticised within Tahrir Square.

Many had wanted to see their heroes join the nation in taking a stance against Mubarak's hated regime but instead, they were largely conspicuous by their silence and absence (with only one former international known to have joined the protests).

Shehata even earned himself a place on an 'Enemy of the Revolution' blacklist - along with Mido, Amr Zaki and Hossam Hassan - after he rallied in support of Mubarak.

But it wasn't wholly surprising that Shehata was backing the regime, for his squad often benefited from close connections with it, and the coach himself was seen by many fans as untouchable given his strong relationship with Mubarak, and his sons Gamal and Alaa.

In truth, the coach was merely reciprocating the loyalty previously shown by the Mubaraks, who often propped up the Pharaohs whenever they faltered under Shehata.

In fact, the national team's success was such that they were pampered by Mubarak's regime and that proximity, which had captain Ahmed Hassan considering a post-football career in politics, has now backfired (he's also now on the blacklist) - meaning defeat in Johannesburg could bring about the end of an era.

While the short-term goal is crystal clear, Egyptian football's long-term future is anything but - as the potential ushering in of democracy will bring a number of changes.

Hassan Shehata needs a good result in South Africa to keep a growing army of critics off his back

Many hope that financial transparency might finally arrive, meaning that reduced corruption will mean more money finding its rightful place - namely investment into a football club itself rather than certain individual's pockets.

Then there's the possible levelling out of the national league, with questions over how those clubs financially backed by the border guards (Al-Jaish), the army (Harras Al Hadoud) and the police (Ittihad Al-Shorta) etc. will fare in a new era - with the public set to be less tolerant of seeing their taxes used to support them.

And although some hope that the sponsorship deals heavily skewed towards giants Ahly and Zamalek may be spread around in a freer market economy, one Ahly board member believes democracy will only make Africa's most successful club stronger still.

"We have a fan base of over 60 million, out of 80 million Egyptians, so Ahly has a great opportunity to get increased revenues out of this democracy, which I believe will bring a lot of foreign investment to Egypt," says Khaled Mortagey.

The revolution has already delivered one unexpected change (however brief) to Egyptian football, with fans of bitter rivals Ahly and Zamalek co-existing side-by-side during their protests - their traditional hatred wiped out as they united against a common enemy.

Over the years, the enmity has seen, inter alia, fans committing murder and a riot so violent that the EFA decided to cancel the league altogether that year.

"I'm positive that if you held an Ahly-Zamalek game right now, the two sets of fans could - for the very first time - sit together without a single incident of violence," says United Nations employee Ahmed Ragab, 42, an Ahly fan who was in Tahrir Square for the protests.

