By Amr Shaheen
BBC Sport, Cairo |
The Egyptian Football Association (EFA) has added to the confusion surrounding the potential appointment of current Cameroon coach Winfried Schaefer as the new Pharaohs manager.
Just days after Schaefer said it was 'very frustrating to hear these kind of lies coming from Egypt,' the EFA has claimed the German applied for the Egyptian post without their prompting.
"Schaefer came to us and offered his services and he was on top of our list," Mohamed El Siagy, the EFA general secretary, told BBC Sport.
But El Siagy admitted that his federation should be blamed for not respecting the secrecy of the negotiations.
"He requested the negotiations to be discreet until we decide upon everything," El Siagy said.
"And we are responsible for leaking the news to the press."
Egypt is currently examining the managerial abilities of six foreign coaches after local coach Mohsen Salah resigned his post as Pharaohs boss.
A list of six coaches was released yesterday to the local press announcing the names of the top nominees, including Schaefer and the Englishman Howard Wilkinson.
Other names on the list include the Brazilians Sebastiao Lazaroni and Carlos Alberto Cabral, French coach Claude Leroy and former Croatia manager Miroslav Blazevic.
The EFA confirmed that the name of the new boss will be decided before the end of March.
Mohsen Salah resigned after the North Africans were eliminated from the group stages of the Cup of Nations for the first time in 12 years.
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Schaefer came to us and offered his services and he was on top of our list 