Omar Bennis, president of the sports company of Maghreb Fes Club, revealed that he followed a negotiating approach in order to provoke Al-Ahly to pay a larger financial consideration in the deal for the Moroccan striker Sofiane Ben Jedida.
Bennis said in statements to the Moroccan website "Info Sports": "I spent my entire professional life in negotiations, and we were negotiating with Al-Ahly and they were presenting us with offers that I don't like, so I told them why would Sofiane leave to a team participating in the Confederation, while we compete in the Champions League?"
He continued: "This matter provoked them, and this provocation came out in the programs and newspapers, and in the end the offer that came to us and we agreed upon was very wonderful, and the negotiation technique I relied on succeeded."
Leaking the penalty clause
He moved on to talk about the spread of the details of the player's contract with Maghreb Fes, saying: "The penalty clause for Sofiane Ben Jedida was leaked, and I don't know how this happened, but this matter did not weaken Maghreb Fes's position because Sofiane was a man in this situation, and asked the Al-Ahly administration to negotiate directly with us."
He added: "The penalty clause of course gives the player the right to leave if he wants to activate it, but if any player comes with an amount like this offered by Al-Ahly and the player wants to leave, I will let him leave."
He continued: "It is not possible for a player who wants to leave to come to a club that gives him 5 or 6 times his salary and I ask him to stay; this is something unreasonable. What Ben Jedida will get from Al-Ahly cannot be received from the largest clubs in Morocco."
Sofiane Ben Jedida moved to Maghreb Fes for 2.5 million euros plus additions, in exchange for signing a 3-year contract.
