Emam to quit club board

Captain Hazem Emam Cairo - Omar El Banouby Hazem Emam is to resign from the board of directors of the Egyptian football club Zamalek due to disagreements with club president Mamdouh Abbas and other board members over choosing a successor to former coach Hassan Shehata. The Zamalek board has authorised Abbas to contract a new technical manager after Emam wanted to bring back twin officials Hossam and Ebrahim Hassan within the team's technical leadership. Board member Ibrahim Youssef however said his brother Ismail must remain technical manager while others called for the appointment of Helmi Toulan or Tariq Yahya to the post. Abbas used one of the players' agents to negotiate with a new foreign manager in order to end the dispute between the board members over picking Shehata's successor, who resigned after Zamalek lost to al-Ahly in the CAF Champions League. The club had already contracted Portuguese coach Jorvan Vieira. Emam had threatened to resign before Vieira was appointed, and did not attend the meeting where he signed the contract. The outgoing member chose not to attend after club president Abbas refused to reinstate Hossam Hassan to the technical leadership, calling him a "problem maker" that "could not lead the team at this critical stage". The former Zamalek and Egyptian national team star said he was against the way Abbas dealt with the crises of the first team, pointing out that he had never played football and took important  decisions alone without consulting the rest of the board. Emam is considering running for the September election to be on the Board of Directors the Egyptian Football Association, on the back of International Federation of Football executive member Hani Abu Rida's desire to sign him. Emam entered the Zamalek board with over 20,000 votes, before the judiciary toppled the council and appointed a new board of directors headed by Jalal Ibrahim. The former president of Zamalek, Mortada Mansour, however repealed the case in court and reinstated the earlier board. Emam is close to both Ibrahim and Hossam Hassan, the three of them having played together in the Egyptian national team and Zamalek for several years before joining administrative work. The Hassans have been training players over the last five years.