By Farayi Mungazi BBC Sport, Ismailia

Hicham Azmy, a member of Egypt's 2010 World Cup bid, says the trouble in Ismailia won't affect their challenge

Egypt's carefully thought-out plans for the 2010 World Cup now resemble confetti in the wind following the mayhem which engulfed Friday's second leg of the Champions League final in Ismailia.

Egypt's appetite for football is beyond question, but disturbances during and after the match between Ismaili and Enyimba of Nigeria have left many, including myself, with doubts about Egypt's suitability as a World Cup host.

Quite what Fifa, the game's supreme authority, will make of it remains unclear, but as the dust settles on a shameful day for African football, Egypt's 2010 World Cup bid is likely to be the main victim.

I don't think 2010 is out of the question Hicham Azmy

"Of course not," retorted Hicham Azmy, a member of Egypt's bid committee, when asked if rioting Ismaili fans had taken the wind out of the north African country's World Cup sails.

He rejected suggestions that Egypt's bid has been dealt a mortal bow, saying there are no plans to raise the white flag in the race to stage the first World Cup on African soil.

"I don't think 2010 for us is out of the question because worse things, such as people dying, have been witnessed in other countries at similar occasions.

"Of course, I don't agree with what the spectators did because fair play is something we all respect in sport, but we won't play matches in Ismailia if we host the World Cup," Azmy said.

He said Caf, the continental body, "were not thinking properly" when they decided to stage the match in Ismailia and appoint "a referee without the experience required to handle such an important game."

While it could be argued that Caf scored a massive own goal by holding the finale of their premier club tournament in Ismailia, equally one would find difficulty in disputing that the 'win some, lose some' sporting adage is something that the home team's supporters have failed to grasp.

Egyptian fans behaving in more appropriate fashion at the 2003 World Youth Cup

The beauty of sport may lie in the fact that nobody can be certain of what is going to happen, but those acquainted with Egyptian football had predicted the trouble that marred Nigeria's maiden victory in the Champions League.

Underneath the pre-match excitement and nerves, there was a genuine fear that things could turn nasty if Ismaili failed in their attempt to be crowned African champions for only the second time in their history.

And one certainly did not require a degree in psychology to establish that defeat was never an option for the Ismaili fans.

Some of them had gone as far as putting up Christmas-style lights in some of the city's streets in readiness for post-match celebrations.

Against this background, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the home fans had approached the match thinking of defeat in the same terms as their fellow-Egyptians would have thought of the pyramids collapsing in a heap.

Defeat was simply a thought too ghastly to contemplate.

Unfortunately, if Egypt's World Cup bid machine had been purring smoothly through the gears prior to Friday's mayhem, it is now spluttering and slipping gears as the race to stage Africa's first World Cup enters the home straight.