Proud president of a wonderful team

HURGHADA - The interview could have been ready after half an hour, but Farouk Barki has to apologize at least five times. For a call to the airport, to arrange tickets for some Korean players, for regular conversations with the people of his organizing team, for the chief of police and to welcome Heiko Wolter, the sports manager of UMB and CEB.

You can say, one hour with Farouk Barki (officially Farouk El Barki), living in Cairo, this week's the big boss of the World Cup in Hurghada, means that you must have som patience and watch everything that's happening in the crisis center of the World Cup. That will say: it's a big word, crisis center.

Because if Farouk is busy on the phone at his desk, his organizing friends Omar (the tournament director), Mohamed (board member of the Egyptian federation), Nabil, or better Bilo (coordinator of the referees), Susan, responsible for graphic designing and Rageh, who takes care about finances, are at work, most of the time very nice and easy to work.

The Hurghada World Cup is held for the ninth time, after one year Eurocup at the start. Farouk Barki says: ,,That first time, when Marco Zanetti won, was the most beautiful, because it felt like a baby was born. Thereafter we grew more and more, we have improved and the organization gradually become a kind of routine.''

But still, records broken, as this year with the registration. ,,The opening of the inscriptions was at twelve, three quarters of an hour later we were fully booked and we had forty players on the reserve list. That's a great record for us.''

Farouk Barki is the proud president of a wonderful team, he assures. ,,We are all friends,'' he says with a warm smile. ,,And sometimes, even when it's very busy, we have fun, we are joking. Look at Bilo, the dentist, I can tell that he is a very important man for us. In his practice he has built a small chair. He is so small that he can't look in the mouth of the patient when he would have a normal chair.''

,,That's not true what he says,'' responds Bilo. ,,I have a chair that can be lowered into the ground, so I can help all my patients easily.''

The World Cup has been started today, in the playing center everything is going well, nobody has to worry. Farouk, who was the president from the first year of the organization, makes clear: ,,We have an organization of seven people, ten assistents outside this organization center and twenty referees, makes 37 people. I am really proud of this organization.''

For at least three years, the UMB/CEB World Cup will be still on the UMB calendar, after Al Akhbar, the biggest newspaper in the Middle East, has renewed the sponsor contract. And moreover, the World Cup in Suwon and Antalya are guaranteed for the next three years.

,,It's almost certain that will be added at least one with a contract of three years'', says Farouk. Maybe it will be Porto, but they prefer to put themselves on the calendar every year. Further, I hope that we will get a South American organization, because the atmosphere is so special there, three cushion is experienced as intense sport in those countries. I would be very happy if we could manage to have another World Cup there.''