Chaos reigns in Egyptian football as league put on hold

Chaos reigns in Egyptian football as league put on hold

By Admin

Another day and more chaos on Egyptian football as it has now been announced that all league fixtures will be suspended until after the African Under-23 Championships that will be hosted in the country from November 8-22.

The competition was always going to take a pause while the continental championship was played, but matches before then have been moved as Al Ahly and their Cairo rivals Zamalek are involved in a bitter dispute over scheduling.

The Egyptian Minister of Youth and Sports Ashraf Sobhy got involved to try and smooth over the clubs’ differences, but even he failed and so the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) have canned the idea of continuing with games until after the Under-23 tournament in a bid to use that time to try and find a solution.

“Based on what we received from the information we received from the Ministry of Youth and Sports and due to security reasons, as well as the fact that Egypt is hosting the U-23 AFCON, we have decided to postpone all game-weeks five and six matches until the tournament ends,” the EFA said in a statement.

“Meanwhile the game between Al Ahly and Zamalek will be played on the final day of the first-leg for security reasons.

“The Al Ahly and Zamalek game [set for October 19] was postponed per the request of security officials, despite the normalization committee’s several attempts to not change the date.

“Moreover, the EFA’s competitions committee had announced that any games could be postponed for security reasons or due to schedule changes in international competitions.”

Zamalek were told to play Arab Contractors this past weekend, which they won 2-1, but unhappy Ahly say they will not play any league fixtures until they get to meet Zamalek, who face Senegalese side Generation Foot in a rescheduled CAF Champions League match on Thursday.

Credit: africanfootball.com