Al Hilal object to refereeing appointment

Ahly Player Amr El Solia (L) and Ramy Moustafa (R) in action against Hilal player Nazar Nassir (C) during the CAF Champions League

by Graeme Jackson

Tuesday Jan 28, 2020. 12:00

Sudanese giants Al Hilal have objected to the appointment of Moroccan referee Radwan Jaid for their crunch CAF Champions League clash with Al Ahly on Saturday.

Hilal will host their Egyptian opponents in Omdurman in their final Group B clash and need a victory to guarantee progression into the quarterfinals – a draw would also be enough, but only in the unlikely event of Etoile du Sahel losing at home to bottom-of-the-log FC Platinum in a concurrent match in Rades.

Hilal had a bad experience with Jaid, who awarded three penalties against them when they clashed with Etoile in the CAF Confederation Cup last season. Having the same official in charge for a crunch game with Ahly is a situation they object strongly to.

“[The] board express its resentment for the complete ignorance shown by CAF towards Al Hilal by appointing Moroccan referee Radwan Jaid for the decisive game against Al Ahly in the group stages final round,” Al Hilal wrote in a statement, as quoted by KingFut.

“Al Hilal express it’s sorrow for this unjustified persistence on hiring this referee. It represents complete injustice. The club confirm that it has filed a complaint to CAF regarding the appointment of this referee.”

When Ahly and Hilal met earlier in the group stage in Cairo, the Egyptian side claimed a 2-1 win thanks to goals from Hussein El Shahat and Ramadan Sobhi.