Al Ittihad Al Sakandari issued a statement announcing the filing of a complaint against the referee of the Al Ahly match, Mustafa Al Shahedi.

Al Ahly won against Al Ittihad with a score of 2-1 in a match in the 11th round of the Egyptian Premier League.

The statement from Al Ittihad Al Sakandari read as follows:

The Board of Directors of Al Ittihad Al Sakandari expresses its deep dissatisfaction and complete condemnation of the refereeing errors made by referee Mustafa Al Shahedi during the team's recent match against Al Ahly, which had a direct impact on the final result of the match.

The referee awarded an incorrect penalty kick after being called by the VAR room for a collision between the ball and our player Abdel Ghani Mohamed's hand, while everyone who watched and followed the match saw that our player Abdel Ghani Mohamed's hand was not extended and was within his body’s perimeter, and that the position of our player's hand that touched the ball was natural compared to his body position, and he did not intentionally touch the ball at all. This penalty kick was a direct cause of changing the course and flow of the match, raising major questions about the level of refereeing and its standards.

The statement continued: Continuing with the completely misguided refereeing decisions from the match referee without any justification, the referee unjustly sent off the team captain Karim Al Deeb, simply for speaking with him in his natural role as the team leader, which is a fundamental right for any captain on the pitch. This confirms the ill intentions and targeting by the match referee, while the referee turned a blind eye to any more intense objections from the opposing team's players, which confirms a double standard and unfair management of the match.

The statement added: Al Ittihad Al Sakandari confirms that it has always supported Egyptian refereeing as a fundamental element of the football system, and that its continued support and backing serves the interests of all elements of the game. Despite the fact that the Al Ittihad Al Sakandari team has faced many refereeing errors this season and in previous seasons, Al Ittihad Al Sakandari has only pointed out and indicated these errors in the hope of not repeating them and that they were not intentional. The continued low level of a fundamental element in the Egyptian football system, which is refereeing, will inevitably lead to disastrous consequences.

Al Ittihad Al Sakandari demands an investigation into what happened yesterday regarding the refereeing farce and the announcement of its results. The club also demands that the main referees committee not assign any future matches involving Al Ittihad Al Sakandari to referee Mustafa Al Shahedi.