 Hicham Azmy headed the Egyptian bid |
The secretary general of the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) says failure to get a single 2010 vote came as a huge shock. It only took one round of voting among the 24 members of Fifa's executive committee for a host to be named on Saturday.
South Africa received 14 votes and Morocco 10. But the Egyptians did not receive a single vote.
"Not one supporter of Egypt's bid. I can't comprehend what's happened," said EFA secretary general, Adly al-Qaei.
"I never felt that our chances were great but I never imagined that we wouldn't get a single vote. "We had all the capabilities to organise the tournament, but we couldn't convince a single member."
"We all felt that South Africa had the best chance," al-Qaei said in Cairo, noting how South Africa had narrowly lost out on the 2006 World Cup.
But he said Egypt apparently just wasn't able to connect at all with Fifa board members.
Egyptian television carried the Fifa announcement live from Zurich.
Afterwards, three gloomy sports announcers and analysts fielded callers' complaints and disappointed comments.
Mohammed el-Seyagi, head of the Egyptian bidding committee, tried to downplay the lack of any votes.
He told the Dubai Sports channel that the number of votes was not important.
"What's important here is that we didn't get first place," he said.
"We made a good attempt, and it was Egypt that would have made the World Cup - not the other way around."
MMIX
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I can't comprehend what's happened 