Shabana attacks WSF over Olympic dithering

Amr Shabana has attacked the World Squash Federation for being slow in organising its campaign for squash's inclusion in the Olympic games.

He also criticised the organisation's marketing in general, noting the movement of the sport's epicentre towards the Middle East and the subsequent neglect of former squash powerbases such as Europe ...

In an interview with the Gulf Times, the Egyptian world number one pulled no punches as he bemoaned the face that he is unable to appear on the biggest stage.

Squash just missed out on inclusion for London 2012, and now hopes rest on it being included in the 2016 games. Shabana himeself has been reconciled to accepting that he will never appear in an Olympic event:

"There was a time when I was very eager to compete at the Olympics. But now since those hopes have been dashed I don’t worry about it any more."

He also sees the recent big-money tournaments in the Middle East as the benchmark for other countries to follow:

"The healthy competition in increasing the prize money between organisers of tournaments in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait is of great help to the hardworking players."

It wasn't mentioned in the article whether Shabana spoke for the other PSA players, but it would be interesting to hear whether the PSA players' reps think that Amr's criticism is valid.

Shabana slams world body - Gulf Times