Ismaili chairman Nasr Aboul-Hassan shrugged off recently-triggered criticism against his club, following the Dervishes' 2-2 draw with Police Union in the Egyptian Premier League. The coastal side were close to registering a narrow win in Saturday's game, but numbers were evened up when Police's Violete Armand notched a last-gasp equalizer. Even though Ismaili are now out of contention for the league title, Aboul-Hassan stated the domestic campaign was not topping the club's priority list in the first place. "Our main objective this season is to build a competent team," he said in quotes released to FilGoal.com. "Competing for the league title over the past months was additional, and the board takes the credit for that. "I guess we have succeeded in forming an imposing squad. We have brought in remarkable newcomers and that will one day pay dividends."
Ricardo On Whether or not Ismaili coach Ricardo is to blame for the outfit's fluctuating results, Aboul-Hassan said: "it wouldn't make sense to hold him responsible for team's instability. "The idea of relieving him of his post has never crossed my mind. We will assess his spell by the end of the season, not at the present time." He also referred that changing the technical staff every now and then is not really in Ismaili's best interest. "The club used to replace head coaches every once and a while, which abysmally affected the team. Now we are aiming to adopt a new approach," the president added. Throughout the last three years, the Ismailia-based side installed and fired a host of tacticians, including Mark Wotte, Sabri Al-Menyawi, Patrice Neveu and Khaled Al-Qammash.
