The head of the Cairo International Stadium Authority, Walid Abdel Wahab, announced that the historic Egyptian football stadium will not host Al-Ahly matches in the coming period in response to the statements of Red Giants coach Marcel Koller.
The Swiss coach, after Al-Ahly’s 2-0 victory over Tala’ea El-Geish on Monday, attacked Cairo International Stadium and considered that the pitch had become very bad, which angered those responsible for the stadium.
Because of this, stadium officials decided to prevent Al-Ahly from playing on its home field again, as Abdel-Wahab said in media statements, “I refuse to host the Al-Ahly and Pyramids match at Cairo Stadium because of Koller’s statements.”
As for the bad condition of the grass, Abdel Wahab justified this due to the enormous pressure of matches, and continued, “There is a match every day on the stadium, and in order to carry out comprehensive maintenance, we need to close the stadium for at least 10 days.”
He concluded, “We are carrying out maintenance operations as much as possible, and I say to those who suffer damage to the stadium: If you prefer to play in another stadium, we will not mind.”
If Cairo International Stadium officials continue to refuse to host Al-Ahly matches, then the Red Club may be forced to play the important Pyramids match either at the Arab Contractors Stadium or Al-Salam Stadium.
The match is scheduled to be held on July 12, with Pyramids at the top of the standings with 68 points from 27 matches, 11 points behind Al-Ahly, which played 4 fewer matches.
It is noteworthy that the Cairo International Stadium Authority later published a statement announcing that it had retracted its position and that the Al-Ahly and Pyramids match would be held in the stadium as planned.
