Zamalek has been awarded the handball league championship and Ahli the cup. Inas Mazhar covers a strange end of season In a highly irregular season finale, the handball league and cup winners had to be announced by the federation, the reason being the antics of the Zamalek club president Murtada Mansour. Concerning the league title, Zamalek beat Ahli in the final game to win it fair and square. However, during the match, Mansour complained vehemently about the refereeing, then shot a tirade of verbal assaults at the federation's president Hassan Mustafa . Though Zamalek won the league, the federation punished Mansour for his outburst by banning him from the Cup final. All the same, Mansour appeared in the final, again between Zamalek and Ahli, forcing the referees to abandon the match. The federation had no choice but to award the cup to Ahli by default. At a press conference at the federation's headquarters, Mustafa, who is also president of the International Handball Federation, announced that the league championship would go to Zamalek. "They had beaten Ahli 26-23 so they deserve the title according to the federation's regulations. "We did not deprive the club or their fans of the trophy but we postponed announcing the results until an investigation was conducted concerning the verbal insults launched by the Zamalek club president Murtada Mansour." Mustafa added, "The board studied the referees reports as well as witness accounts and they all proved the Zamalek president guilty. However, this has nothing to do with either the players or the team's officials or the fans. They played a clean game so why punish them? "We respect the club as one of the top in Egypt. It is not their fault that their president committed mistakes. We are a federation known to be fair. We don't judge matters according to personal matters," Mustafa said. As for the Cup, Mustafa said the EHF had awarded it to Ahli despite being a goal behind Zamalek, 13-12, when the match was called off. "Our decision this time was also based on regulations," Mustafa said. "At the federation's meeting in which we had delayed the announcement of the league champion, we informed Zamalek club that their president was banned from attending the club's final Cup match, and that if he showed up the match would be called off, Zamalek would be considered to have pulled out and the cup would go to Ahli," Mustafa said. "We were clear from the beginning and had warned the club and its president. He should have respected our decisions which are always taken in favour of the sport. But he appeared and therefore the referees had to take action according to the regulations." On the day of the cup final the controversial Mansour did indeed appear, running on to the court, snatching the cup trophy and parading it in front of Zamalek fans, then posed with it and the team players for photos. Mustafa said the EHF and the National Olympic Committee had presented a memo to the minister of youth concerning his verbal offense. In another of his maccabre ways, Mansour has banned all journalists and photographers from Al-Ahram entering the club, believing the newspaper is being unfair towards him. All Zamalek teams were instructed to refrain from dealing with Al-Ahram. Whoever does otherwise might face Mansour's wrath.
