Ahly are supposed to be hosted by Zamalek in the opening match of the Egyptian Premier League's title race phase. However, the EFA suddenly appointed a local referring crew for the game on Monday night, opposing Ahly's desire.
Following an urgent board meeting on Tuesday morning, the club stated that the game should be postponed until a foreign referring crew is brought in, adding that it won’t compete in the domestic league if its demands are not met.
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On Monday, Ahly sent a letter to the EFA as a reminder of its previous call to appoint a foreign referring crew for the crucial games including the derby to fulfill justice after a series of fatal refereeing mistakes.
In the letter, Ahly insisted on sticking to the agreement with the Egyptian Pro League (EPL) over appointing foreign referring for the decisive games in the league’s final phase, with the EPL previously vowing to pay the costs.
The EFA replied in a statement earlier on Tuesday blaming the limited time for not appointing a foreign crew, and called on clubs to support Egyptian refereeing.
As a reply to the EFA's sudden decision, the Ahly board held an urgent meeting on Tuesday morning to discuss "the unprecedented hassle as a result of the lack of coordination between the EFA and EPL, which has been consistently causing trouble for the clubs," the club said in a statement via its official Facebook page.
Ahly also blamed the EFA for neglecting the issue despite its many calls to develop the refereeing system in Egypt and to appoint a foreign expert as the head of the refereeing committee following extensive errors in previous matches.
The EFA has yet to respond to Ahly's latest statement.
Pyramids FC currently leads the league with 42 points, three points ahead of holders and second-place Ahly, while Zamalek is third with 32 points.
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