Shobeir, the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) vice-president, worked as a commentator for several years before being approached by Dream TV to present a football show which became later very popular among Egyptian people.

The 46-year-old spoke to FilGoal.com about his football career with Ahli and Egypt national team, his work in media and revealed hidden facts about several disputes which the EFA resolved.

Shobeir and the EFA

The current FA board seems to have a lot of organizational, managerial and technical problems; do you have any comments about that?

Personally, I think I need to achieve more with the EFA, but being the second man often limits my authority. I admit that I am not satisfied with how things are going inside the FA especially concerning the decision-making process, which depends on collective opinion rather than majority voting, so we usually have a lot of conflicts.

But you all took charge of the EFA after being voted as one unit?

From my past experience in such matters, I can tell you that everything changes after one week. The conflicts inside the association negatively affect the unity of the board.

Apart from decision-making, why does the FA interfere with the tasks of committees?

Because people who are managing these committees are sometimes unaware of their responsibilities, despite having a clear job description but for example if we have someone with the experience of Mahmoud Al-Gohari, I think no one will dare to interfere in his job.

How will the FA deal with the Military World Cup, which will clash with the fixtures of other competitions?

Players who will participate with the military team are those who are on military duty, and if the group includes stars like Mohamed Abou-Treika or Hosni Abd-Rabou for example, we have nothing to do about it.

Ismaili officials are trying to persuade the FA to edit the fixture agenda in order to be able to participate in both competitions next season, the African Confederation Cup and Arab Champions League (ACL), what is your opinion regarding this issue?

What Ismaili are trying to do is nonsense. For example, they made a request to the FA in order to play a league game on August 9th and then play in the Confederation Cup on August 10th, and of course this is impossible, that’s why I insist that teams will only be allowed to take part in one continental or regional competition per season.

What is the secret behind the poor relationship between the FA and the media?

It is the media itself. After the current board took charge, media split into groups, some support the current FA while the other group keeps criticizing the FA in favor of the losing candidates.

What is your opinion on the performance of the refereeing committee, supervised by Gamal Al-Ghandour, last season?

I think that Al-Ghandour should have done better, but we are expecting better results next season.

The national teams

Why did the FA handed Magdi Tolba the responsibility of managing the Olympic team in the recent All African Games despite the fact that he is inexperienced?

I disagreed with the FA when they decided to hire Tolba, because he has no experience. I suggested that the senior team's assistant coach Shawki Gharieb could fit the job but no one accepted.

Egypt senior team coach Hassan Shehata led the team to winning the 2006 African Nations Cup, but there is a lot of controversy surrounding him, what is your view?

Shehata guided the team to the African Nations Cup trophy last