Egyptian star Mido has offered an apology to national coach Hassan Shehata but has been given no indication if he will be allowed to play in the 2006 African Nations Cup final against the Ivory Coast.

Mido had been banned by the Egyptian football association for six months following his touchline row with Shehata after the coach substituted him in the semi-final win against Senegal. He then called the Egyptian coach, team and association “amateurs” before having a change of heart.

Mido, who is currently on loan at English Premiership side Tottenham Hotspur, attended Egypt’s training, apologised to Shehata and asked to be forgiven.

Shehata has accepted the apology but refused to be drawn on whether Mido would play any part in the final which he believes Egypt have every chance of winning for the fifth time,

“We are in outstanding form, and we are very focused and ready to win the final game,” he said. “However, this game is nothing like the first time we met Ivory Coast in this tournament when we won 3-1. This is a completely different story. Now we have no other choice but to win.”

This entry was posted on Friday, February 10th, 2006 at 3:38 pm and is filed under International Football News. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.