Relegation for the 2010-2011 football season - The Egyptian Football Association (EFA) on Wednesday has annulled relegation for the 2010-2011 football season, following the footsteps of Tunisia. Emulating the Tunisians, who preceded the Egyptians with their own peaceful revolution that toppled their long-time ruler, the EFA decided to take a leaf from the Tunisian notebook and cancel relegation. the reason is that the football league was halted during the bumpy revolution's incidents.

The EFA announced that next season’s Egyptian Premier League would thus feature 20 teams instead of 16 after relegation was cancelled.

The news comes as great relief to Alexandria's Ittihad and Somouha, along with Cairo's Arab Contractors, who were all saved by the bell, and will now remain in the top flight.

Supporters of Ittihad, the most popular club of Egypt's second city, had protested as recently as a couple of days ago in front of the EFA headquarters in Cairo after their club finished second from bottom.

They arguing that they were especially affected by January’s popular uprising which toppled Hosni Mubarak and his regime, since Alexandria was one of the country's worst hit areas.

Ittihad fans had been especially active since news broke that the Tunisian Football Association had cancelled relegation. And their lobbying has been rewarded.

Police-owned club Dakhlia, Upper Egypt's Bany Swaif Telephones and the Delta's Ghazl Mahalla have already won promotion to the Premier League.

Cairo's Tersana, Dakahlia's Mansoura and Upper Egypt's Aswan will vie for the remaining place in the top flight after a special round robin tournament concludes in the upcoming days.

Zamalek, who finished runners up to league winners Ahly, said two weeks ago they demanded their arch rivals be stripped of their title on the grounds that they were no less affected by the revolution than Ittihad.

But the Cairo giants backtracked on their stance a few days later.

The White Knights were six points ahead of their bitter Cairo rivals, the Red Devils of Ahly at the halfway stage of the season, but surrendered their advantage after the league resumed in April.

The EFA's decision to cancel relegation has been severely criticised by many football teams and  experts in the country, who argued there should never be exceptions when applying rules of engagement.

Egypt's Cup competition will resume in the second half of August, which coincides with the ongoing holy fasting month of Ramadan.

Pana 04/08/2011