Breaking: Ahly Elevates EFA Penalties to FIFA, CAS

The board of directors of El-Ahly Club announced their objection to the sanctions announced by the Disciplinary Committee of the Egyptian Football Association, and have decided to take their complaints to the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The club’s board of directors held a meeting today, Sunday, to discuss the response to the decisions of the Discipline Committee, which they deemed favorable to arch rivals Zamalek.

The Club also posted a Press Release stating the upcoming procedures that will be taken within the coming days. (Read Below).

"Al-Ahly club regrets the events that occurred after the Egyptian Super Cup Match-Up, which was held in the United Arab Emirates, which deserves all recognition and thanks, but based on the Ahly club's principles established throughout generations, the club did not and will not defend any infringements, whatever its location, but will always looking for justice without discrimination, according to the provisions of the regulations and legal rules.

The club is keen to clarify the whole truth, through the report of the head of the Ahly Mission in Abu Dhabi, and the report of the football director, and the meetings held by Captain Mahmoud Al-Khatib, the president of the club aiming to take deterrent measures towards any violation.

The board issued several warnings to a certain official who has spent the last 2 years verbally assaulting the club on television and in the media, with the club doing their best to contact assigned inpiduals to deal with this official who has caused persion among the fans, contributed to many violent disruptions over the last period, resulting in our internal problems being seen abroad, lately in the United Arab Emirates.

This person is by far responsible for the recent disruptions within our football community and is spending his time violating the laws and verbally assaulting all assigned officials especially the current EFA Committee.

The club officials need to confess to the public that they are unable to deal with this inpidual and are afraid to take any real actions against him, but only informally punishing him with very weak repercussions.

The officials need to realize now the grave mistakes they committed when they deliberately ignored the investigation of the numerous complaints that the club formally submitted backed by the documents against this official, who insulted, slandered, and discredited the families, and the Football Association and its committees also bear responsibility, because most of its decisions were issued In the past, the Commission for Discipline and Ethics was neither fair nor completely following rules and regulations.

Those in charge of the Football Association strives to deal with anyone who tries to manipulate the regulation of the competition, and the club has sent three official correspondences to the Federation since the beginning of the season asking for a copy of the regulation list, to completely understand the laws of the Federation but has not received an answer since.

Due to the recent violations mentioned above the club decided to take the following repercussions:

• Reject all penalties issued by the Discipline and Ethics Committee of the Football Association against El-Ahly players, for the following reasons:
• Sanctions were issued according to regulations that we were not notified of and we know nothing about, although we have addressed the Football Association three times since the beginning of the season to provide us with a copy of it and we have not received any response, knowing that the interim committee’s amendment of the approved list was not with the approval of the General Assembly or its authorization, and such Penalties according to the original regulations approved by the competence of the Competitions Committee and not the Discipline and Ethics Committee.

• Unfair sanctions with double standards when punishing someone, and even did not deter those who committed an outrageous act.
• The Discipline and Ethics Committee ignored the regulations of the FIFA, when it signed a retaliatory punishment and decided to suspend one of the Ahly players and prevent him from participating in the matches till the end of the season without conducting an investigation with him, which was stipulated in the FIFA regulations; A weak penalty was imposed on those who committed the scandalous act while they are the ones who deserved the most severe of punishments.
• The Abu Dhabi Sports Channel Committee refused the statements by EFA member Mohamed Fadl, affirming that they have not sent any video footages of the post-match misbehaviors, thus deeming the penalties unjust.
• El-Ahly sent a complaint to the International Football Association against the head of the Provisional Committee of the Football Association, who has abandoned his neutrality while in a position of responsibility. And he ignited the anger of the fans of El-Ahly by celebrating with the players of the team he belongs to in the corridor leading to their changing rooms, which is proved with videos and photographs, and we did not wish to resort to this step had it not been for the Chairman of the Provisional Committee to leave all the limits of his responsibilities and his actions were an invitation to intolerance within our club.
• Take all legal and regulatory measures in accordance with the regulations of the International Football Association, the regulations adopted by the Egyptian Federation and the Olympic Charter before all concerned parties and escalate to FIFA and the International Sports Court "Cas" to cancel these decisions that are ridiculous in order to preserve the club’s rights.
• In addition, the El-Ahly decided to report the mentioned official to the FIFA since he issued in a previous report that one of his players escaped to join El- Ahly.