CAIRO: Al-Ahly's star player Mohamed Abou-Trika gave back a LE 1 million gift from businessman Naguib Sawiris following a dispute over sponsorship rights between Mobinil, owned by Sawiris, and Vodafone, Al-Ahly's sponsor. The gift came as a personal gesture from Sawiris as a reward to Abou-Trika for turning down a lucrative offer from Al-Ahly of Dubai in favor of his local team. The player had announced that he would give the money to a charity organization and to the children's cancer hospital 57357, making it clear that news of the monetary gift must be framed as a gesture from Sawiris personally, not from Mobinil, Vodafone's main competitor. However, when a full page ad was published in newspapers showing Abou-Trika receiving the gift from Sawiris under the Mobinil logo, Vodafone objected since the player is committed to an exclusive sponsorship contract with them. Vodafone accused Mobinil of misleading the player. Mobinil didn t take Abou-Trika s approval to publish his pictures in the media, Hatem Dweidar, CEO of Vodafone told the press. Abou-Trika then returned the money to Sawiris and asked him to distribute it to charity organizations himself and issued a statement in several newspapers denying any relations with Mobinil. I accepted the gift only in a personal capacity between me and Naguib Sawiris without any relations or links with Mobinil and I was told the picture was to be given to Sawiris personally, not used for advertising purposes, Abou-Trika said in his statement. I am committed with Vodafone and it's unethical for me to appear with a rival company, he said. According to press reports, Vodafone isn t planning to sue Abou-Trika because he is a decent player and he didn t intend to breach the sponsorship deal between them. On the other hand, a dispute erupted between Mobinil and Al-Ahram newspaper when the latter refused to publish the advertisement knowing that Vodafone is Abou-Trika's sponsor. In retaliation, Sawiris reportedly gave orders not to run any Mobinil ads in Egypt's most widely-distributed national newspaper. Mobinil officials were not available for comment by press time.
