EGYPT FA COLLAPSES AS RESIGNATIONS ROCK FEDERATION OVER AFCON DEFEAT

The Egypt Football Association (EFA) finally collapsed on Sunday afternoon after several board member resignations rocked the country's governing body, following in the footsteps the President of the federation in the wake of their shock defeat to underdogs South Africa at 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.

With eight board members resigning along with the President of the federation by Sunday afternoon, the 11-member EFA body can not form a quorum which automatically makes it defunct, according to its constitution.

This comes after the EFA vice-president Ahmed Shoubeir and Karam Kurdi sent their hand-written resignation letters as well as Dina Rifai and Mohammed Abu Al-Wafa sent their letters too to take the number to nine.

Executive Director of the EFA, Tharwat Sweilem, is expected to take charge as interim President of the federation for the next three months before elections are held, insiders have said.

Hani Abou Rida resigned as the EFA President on Saturday night and called on the members of the board of directors to submit their resignations after the host country was knocked out in the Round of 16.

Four board members immediately responded to the demands of their leader and Hazem Imam, Saif Zaher, Ahmed Mujahid and Khalid Latif announced their official resignations before four others joined in by Sunday afternoon.

The status of Issam Abdel Fattah and Majdi Abdel Ghani remains unknown.

With the number of resignations rising the quorum of the governing body of the EFA board cannot be reached.

The constitution of the EFA stipulates that in the case of the resignation of the Board of Directors or a number of its members, which leads to the loss of quorum, the board becomes dissolved.

The EFA loses its legal status and becomes defunct in the case of the resignation of half of its members, which has now happened with the resignation of nine out of 11 members.

The Regulation also provides that the Executive Director of the EFA, Tharwat Sweilem, will manage the affairs of the Federation as its interim President for a period of three months before elections are held for the governing council.

Abou Rida, who is a member of the FIFA Council and CAF Executive Committee, revealed that he will continue to chair the Local Organising Committee of the tournament until it ends on 19 July.

The respected administrator threw in the towel two hours after the host country was shockingly eliminated by underdogs in Cairo on Saturday night despite the massive home support.

The Pharaohs were bundled out of the tournament at the Round of 16 after suffering the surprising 1-0 defeat to the confident Bafana Bafana who now book their place in the quarter-finals with the late winner in Cairo.

With Egypt throwing players forward, Thembinkosi Lorch struck on the counter-attack after 85 minutes leading to the disaster for the home side.