CAIRO - The Grievances Committee at the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) has increased the sanctions on Al-Masry Club, which will now be relegated to the Second Division after a one-year suspension from all football competitions. These sanctions come in the wake of the Port Said tragedy, Egypt's official Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported. Last month, the EFA decided to freeze the first team of Al-Masry Club of Port Said for two years, coupled with a home-play ban lasting three years. Al-Masry's youth and junior teams are excluded from the EFA sanctions. The Grievances Committee decided last Tuesday that Al-Masry Club will now be relegated to the Second Division, while the ban on playing matches on home soil has been upped to four years from three years. The Committee has also increased the sanctions imposed on Al-Ahly Club, as the team will have to play the first four matches of the new season away from home, with the first match behind closed doors. The Committee has also fined the club LE60,000 (around $10,000) and suspended the team's technical coach, Manuel José da Silva, for four games and fined him LE5,000 (around $800). Also, the committee has also decided that Ahly captain, Hossam Ghali, will be suspended for six games and fined LE10,000 (around $1,600) for bad behaviour. Counsellor Hazem Badawi, the Chairman of the Grievances Committee, said that they were not subjected to any pressures on their decision, stressing that these decisions are final and binding on all the concerned parties. "We have not been subjected to any pressure; if there were any pressure, the Committee would immediately resign," Badawi told CNN in Arabic, pointing out that the Committee consulted the rules of FIFA before taking its final decision. Al-Ahly, meanwhile, have declined to comment on the Grievances Committee's decisions, which the board of the club will discuss at a meeting to be held shortly. The board of Al-Masry Club has rejected the Grievances Committee sanctions on Al-Masry, adding that the club will appeal to the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the world governing body of soccer, and to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS). "EFA seeks to destroy Al-Masry and flatter Al-Ahly through the extra sanctions issued against Al-Masry Club," said Al-Masry spokesman Ragab Abdel-Qader. On February 1, in the coastal city of Port Said, an Egyptian Premier League match between Al-Masry and Al-Ahly turned violent, claiming the lives of at least 74 Ahly fans and injuring around 1,000 more. Seconds after the final whistle, thousands of supporters of Port Said team Al-Masry invaded the pitch, hurling bottles and rocks at the fans of Cairo's Ahly. The Port Said Criminal Court adjourned, the trial of 75 people charged with premeditated murder, in the wake of the Port Said violence, to May 5, in order to hear the testimonies of the witnesses. Early in March, the EFA cancelled the Premier League 2011-12 season, deciding to replace it with a friendly tournament called the ‘Martyrs' Cup' and the Egypt Cup, played behind closed doors. But then, in mid-March, the EFA decided to cancel the Martyrs' Cup and Egyptian Cup after Al-Ahly Ultras groups threatened to cause trouble in the stadiums, if the tournament and the Egypt Cup went ahead before the perpetrators of the massacre in Port Said were punished.
