There has been an unprecedented scandal in the Egyptian league. Record champions Al-Ahly simply did not show up for the game against city rivals Zamalek in protest against the referee assignment – and now they do not want to play the rest of the season.
Actually, everything was set up: the fans were there, the referees too, the national anthem was played, and the Zamalek SC players put their arms around each other in the center circle. The only problem was that there was no one to face them. The first top-flight game of the championship round between Egyptian record champions Al-Ahly and their city rivals Zamalek, which should have taken place on Tuesday evening, was kicked off. However, the Al-Ahly team, coached by Marcel Koller, did not show up.
This led to some bizarre scenes: for several minutes, Zamalek’s professional players passed the ball around at a warm-up pace in their own half before the referee finally blew the final whistle. The fans cheered, Zamalek’s substitutes ran onto the field – the club is now hoping to be awarded the three points on the green table.
The uproar is the result of the refereeing of the game. The league had appointed Mahmoud Bassiouni – an Egyptian – to referee the game. However, Al-Ahly had insisted on using a foreign referee for the game. The club said it had sent a letter to the Egyptian Football Association ahead of the game requesting a foreign referee because of what it called “serious refereeing mistakes by domestic referees that affect the results of matches”.
It is not uncommon for top matches in Egypt to be refereed by foreign referees: the last city derby between Al-Ahly and Zamalek in February was refereed by a referee from Norway.
Even the Minister of Sport intervened
However, after the association refused to meet Al-Ahly’s request this time, Africa’s most successful club issued a statement on Tuesday afternoon calling for the game to be postponed and played with a different referee. In the event that this did not happen, they did not want to finish the championship round. According to media reports, the Egyptian Football Association then tried to find a referee from Libya or Saudi Arabia at short notice, but this could not be arranged. Even the country’s sports minister is said to have intervened to de-escalate the situation – ultimately without success.
It is unclear whether Al-Ahly will actually follow through on its threat and withdraw from the championship round. The club merely announced on the short message service X that it would refund the ticket costs to its fans who had traveled to the game. The Egyptian Football Association does not provide any information on its website regarding the result of the game, only that Al-Ahly did not show up for the game “because they had objected to the appointment of an Egyptian referee.”
In Egypt, a championship round is played among the top nine teams at the end of the season. Al-Ahly, the country’s record champions with 44 titles, finished second behind Pyramids FC, with Zamalek in third place.
