“Football ought to be based on the freedom of the movement of players, and fair competition between clubs and there is no place for non-compete clauses,” read a statement by FIFPRO on Friday.
“We call upon Ahly to immediately stop legal claims against Abdallah El-Said,” the statement added.
The 37-year-old Egyptian was ordered to pay Ahly $2 million after breaching a clause of his contract with his ex-club more than two years ago, the Egyptian Sports Settlement and Arbitration Center (ESSAC) ruled last May.
“The player appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport where he obtained multiple provisional measures suspending the enforcement of the decision,” FIFPRO added in their statement.
“This however did not stop Ahly from pursuing the matter in Egypt, obtaining an order to freeze the player’s bank account,” the statement said.
“We are appalled by the conduct of Ahly which in continuing to make a player’s life a living nightmare because its officials are upset he plays for their competitor now,” FIFPRO legal director Roy Vermeer said.
El-Said, who played for Ahly from 2011 to 2018, joined Egypt's Pyramids FC from Saudi Arabia's Ahli on a free transfer in January 2019.
Ahly lodged a complaint with the ESSAC, saying they should receive $2 million over a breach of an agreement they struck with Ahli regarding El-Said's move to the Saudi club in the summer of 2018.
FIFA has already dismissed Ahly’s claim against the Saudi club because the player was out of contract.
El-Said, one of the mainstays of a powerful Ahly side in the past decade, was involved in a bitter dispute with the club when he signed a deal with his team's Cairo nemesis Zamalek in early 2018 as his contract approached its end.
He then backtracked on his decision and opted to stay at Ahly, who nonetheless punished the player by telling him he had no future at the club.
El-Said then spent two months on loan at Finnish club KuPS before joining Ahli Jeddah in the summer of that year. His brief tenure in Saudi Arabia was brought to an end after he moved to Pyramids in January 2019.
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