Ismaily requests foreign referee for Ahly match

ISMAILIA (GoPharaohs.com) - Ismaily has officially requested from the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) that their match against Al-Ahly, which is scheduled for January 7th 2007, be refereed by a non-Egyptian crew. It has been a common practice for the Ahly-Zamalek games to be refereed by a non-Egyptian but less common for an Ismaily match with either Ahly or Zamalek.

Ismaily are right on the tails of Al-Ahly in the league standings and their match on the 7th of January will be critical for both teams in determining which way the momentum shifts. Ismaily officials are well aware of this fact and have publicly stated that the Ahly match is the bottleneck in their path to winning the league title.