The sudden transfer of right-winger Islam El-Shater from Zamalek to Ahli opens a new chapter in the cold war between the rival clubs. Mohamed El-Sayed reports Many observers argued that the cold war between Egypt's two football powerhouses Ahli and Zamalek came to an end when their chairmen agreed to a truce few months ago. Ahli's chairman Hassan Hamdi and Zamalek's Kamal Darwish had come to an unannounced agreement stating that no one of them should try to sign a player of the other side. The truce was fast breached when Ahli managed to sign Zamalek's Islam El-Shater three weeks ago, capitalising on a gaping hole in his contract with Zamalek -- also known as the White House. The move resulted in a prompt string of mutual accusations between the two arch rivals. The deal began in the transfer period in January when Zamalek officials succeeded in signing Islam El-Shater from the coastal city club Ismaili for LE875,000. Though the transfer was against his wish, El-Shater -- who wished to wear Ahli's jersey -- played only two games with the white jerseys before they lent him to Ittihad Jeddah of Saudi Arabia for six months for US125,000 (LE875,000). According to the terms of his contract with Zamalek, El-Shater should have come back to the White House after the end of the loan period. Ahli has been known to be in a fix with its lacking skill on the right-wing side. Quick to grasp the opportunity, the club reviewed the player's loan contract and capitalised on a term that entitles the player to play for any team after paying LE875,000 to Zamalek -- a small price to pay for a team grappling to find its footing. Zamalek officials were shocked at the news of El-Shater's signing to their arch foes, describing the transfer as "unethical". Claiming that the player does not have the right to play for any other club before their prior consent, the White House administration filed a lawsuit to restore the player from the Red Devils. Arguing that Zamalek did not respect the agreement, Ahli officials maintained that this step was a reply to Zamalek's signing of the red "bad boy" Ibrahim Said. Said had signed for Zamalek without acknowledging the officials of Ahli and kept the whole matter a secret till the end of the league matches. He announced his signing to Zamalek when he appeared amidst the white fans in the Military Academy Stadium during the team's last match in the national league. The history of snatching players between the two clubs goes back to the emergence of the fierce competition between the two giant clubs in the beginning of the last century. In 1914, Hussein Hegazi, the first Egyptian player to play professional soccer in Europe, was the spark that ignited the cold war between the two clubs. Coming back to Egypt after a fruitful professional career with the English teams Dulwich Hamlet and Fulham, Hegazi formed a team of his own called "Hegazi Al- Fan". His rare talent caught the eyes of Ahli officials who managed to get his signature. Two years later, however, Hegazi moved to arch rivals Zamalek and remained there for five years. He was later lured back to Ahli, for whom he helped win numerous trophies. It didn't quite end there, of course -- the master of the pitch was back with Zamalek a few years later, a back-and- forth rhythm that became somewhat characteristic of his career. The specifics of Hegazi aside, however, it was his hopping between Ahli and Zamalek that is alleged to have been a catalyst in the Ahli-Zamalek rivalry -- each team vowing to win the best player onto their side. The rivalry has not simply sustained, but as well intensified. In 1936, a so-called "bright star" called Abdel-Karim Saqr was scouted from the football tournament of "schools" -- one of the most famous football championships at the time. At just 16, Saqr was signed by Ahli for four years, in the face of a bitter Zamalek administration, envious of the Ahli clinch, and eager to clinch him somehow into their league. With the temptation of vast amounts of money, Zamalek took the young player to a distant village away from the eyes of Ahli officials and convinced him to sign for Al-Mukhtalat (Zamalek). This transfer came to the dismay of Ahli fans and further ignited the conflict between the arch rivals. Saqr scored in the first Ahli-Zamalek encounter in the National Football League in 1948. However, after 15 seasons with Zamalek, the player returned to Ahli in 1953 to play only one friendly match before retirement. Saqr marked perhaps the second chapter of the rivalry. The third, it could be said, was written in 1946, when Zamalek tried to get the signature of Ahli's Mohamed El-Guindi, nicknamed "the black prince". The White House head Haidar Pasha attempted to capitalise on the friendship between Zamalek's captain Hanafi Bastan and El-Guindi. Zamalek chairman asked Bastan to accompany the Ahli player to a remote village and remain there until the transfer period ended, thus preventing Ahli from renewing his contract. But El-Guindi returned home too soon, to find an Ahli official awaiting him with a Red Devils contract. He succeeded, but the snatching continued in years to come. The 1950s saw the snatching process gain momentum, and again more in the 60s, fading somewhat in the 70s and 80s. It was in the summer of 1993 that the rivalry was rekindled -- sparked, really, back to life. That summer Zamalek star Reda Abdel-Aal shocked his club -- which was celebrating their victory of the national league for the second consecutive year -- when he expressed his wish to leave the white team. The grapple between the teams became very much a matter of money, and Ahli clinched the player in the end with its LE675,000 deal -- a figure unprecedented at that time. Since then, fierce competition has ensued between the two clubs, resulting in what has been said by critics to be a cat and mouse game. Critics have slammed the snatching as a waste of energy with visibly detrimental affects on the quality of play and the future of the sport. Instead of investing the energy and money into the grooming of young national talent, it has been thrown, instead, into the stroking of ego. In fact, Ahli and Zamalek often signed elite players from provincial clubs and kept them on the sidelines -- the signing clearly being something of personal glee. The professional policy of player transfers followed around the world states that any player has the right to transfer freely to any club after the termination of his contract with his own club. In Egypt, however, a country where the mismanagement of sport affairs is embarrassingly rife, there are no clear-cut regulations organising relations between the club and the player. The result is the signing of players without acknowledging their clubs -- an act seen as unethical by most other nations on the globe. It is hoped that the new minister will manage to break through to the administration of the two clubs, and bring to their attention the reality of the snatching plight as a futile game with little long- term prosper. A breakthrough is regrettably not expected in the near future.
