Egyptian coach furious! He criticizes the unfair schedule after elimination from AFCON 2025, claiming envy and fear over reaching the final.
On 16 Jan 2026 GMT+7, Hossam Hassan, Egypt's national team coach, spoke out after his team lost 0-1 to Senegal, missing the final of the Africa Cup of Nations 2025 held in Morocco. He pointed directly to the unfair match scheduling as the main issue.
The former Egyptian legendary striker confirmed that his team did not want to make excuses but was only demanding fairness.
"We just want fairness. In the previous round, we played one day after Senegal, and this time Senegal played at the same stadium. I was surprised by the scheduling. We faced a team from that city already, and we had no recovery time because of travel."
"Is there any FIFA rule that allows a tournament to schedule matches like that? When a team reaches the semifinals, should you honor or trample on them?"
"We expected all teams to have equal rest time, but what happened is the other three semifinal teams all had more rest than we did."
This defeat means Egypt, the nation with the most Africa Cup of Nations titles at seven, must continue to wait for another championship since their last in 2010. However, Hossam Hassan believes their past greatness still creates pressure and jealousy among other nations on the continent.
"We are a great nation; no one in Africa has won seven titles like us. Many were worried Egypt would reach the final. They are jealous of our history. Egypt is the mother of this continent in terms of success and trophies," Hassan concluded.