Al Ahly Club announced that it had submitted a letter to the Egyptian Football Association in which it criticizes the association's decisions to appoint Essam Abdel Fattah as head of the referees committee.
The Egyptian Football Association had announced the appointment of Essam Abdel Fattah as head of the referees committee for the new 2026/2027 season.
Al Ahly published the following on its official account:
Your decisions and choices do not inspire optimism or cooperation
There is a violation of the regulations.. and the referees' statements are "catastrophic"
Today the club sent a letter to the Egyptian Football Association stating that Al Ahly had been looking forward to the start of implementing the development plan for Egyptian football that the Minister of Youth and Sports had previously announced, in conjunction with the Football Association a few weeks ago, to capitalize on the good level shown by the national team in the last World Cup.
However, the club was surprised by some decisions that do not inspire optimism about what is to come, but rather contribute to stirring up crises in the sports community. The Football Association assigned the chairmanship of the referees committee to an official who had previously held this position and had not provided justice to the majority of clubs, foremost among them Al Ahly Club, and had used strange terms such as "containment" and "the spirit of the protocol," which at the time prompted the club to announce to the public that the referees committee had lost its credibility and integrity, and decided to complete the league competition with young players and those returning from injuries, and refused to participate in the Cup tournament.
The letter also stated that there is a public violation of the regulations. Whoever fails to pay the dues of state institutions obtains the required approvals, and the head of the association grants him the badge of distinction in the media as the one who pays the most and whose contracts are valid, as if the contracts of the rest of the clubs are invalid.
He forgot that there are legitimate rights recognized worldwide in separating sports performance contracts from commercial rights contracts.
The letter pointed out that the head of the association had submitted a proposal to CAF to increase the number of clubs participating in the Champions League.
When he received the rejection response, he concealed it for a week without justification, unless it was in anticipation of determining the clubs that obtained the African license.
The club described the statements made in the last hours by both the VAR referee in the Ceramica and Al Ahly match in the final stage of the league championship last season and a member of the referees committee as catastrophic, representing a black mark on the forehead of the Egyptian refereeing system.
The first revealed the unjustified obstinacy of the match referee in not awarding a valid penalty kick in favor of Al Ahly.
The second confirmed this and clearly pointed to what the club had repeatedly warned about: that there is a person outside the association's system interfering in the work of the referees committee.
Al Ahly in turn described in its letter the statements, decisions, and choices of the Football Association as not inspiring optimism or cooperation.
The association must bear its responsibilities.
Everyone was expecting what serves the interest of all clubs, which contributed strongly to producing and preparing distinguished players who helped the national team in the World Cup.
The club hoped that matters would be set right to serve Egyptian football.
