Hassan Shehata’s tenure at the head of the Egyptian national team officially came to an end today during a meeting between the tactician and Egyptian Football Association (EFA) president Samir Zaher. The former Zamalek player expressed a willingness to hand in his resignation after yesterday’s goalless home draw against South Africa at the Cairo Olympic Stadium virtually nullified the Pharaohs’ chances of defending their continental crown at the 2012 African Cup of Nations (Afcon). It is believed that Shehata anticipated his sacking and decided to pre-empt his employers with his resignation but the EFA has posted a press release on it’s official website in which it framed the development as a mutual agreement between Shehata and president Zaher. “At the end of the meeting, the two sides agreed on the following: Ending the contractual ties with the Egyptian technical team staff, led by Hassan Shehata and submitting the decision for review to the EFA’s board of directors,” read the press release. The note also mentioned that Zaher thanked Shehata for his hard work which brought Egypt an unprecedented three successive continental trophies and helped the Pharaohs break into the top ten of Fifa’s football rankings at one point as well. Egypt’s chances of qualifying for Afcon 2012 are essentially gone as they remain at the bottom of Group G and would need to win their next two games by a very wide margin while hoping that South Africa somehow manage to lose consecutively to Niger and then Sierra Leone. Source: Goal.com