Menzi Magubane
Zamalek president Mortada Mansour has had enough of “underperforming players”.
Mansour has decided to cut salaries of his players after losing two Egyptian Premier League matches in just seven days.
There is currently no public information about how much they were cut by. Every player has however had his wages decreased.
Zamalek are currently on top of the log and lead the second place Pyramids by two points after 19 matches.
But two successive home defeats to ENPPI last Tuesday and El Gaish seven days later sees them at a risk of failing to defend their league title.
The Pyramids have a game in hand and if they win away to Al Ittihad on Sunday they could leapfrog Zamalek and lead by a single point.
But Zamalek’s biggest threat is their biggest rivals Al Ahly who are in third place.
Ahly, however, have four games in hand and are seven points behind the reigning champions. The two will meet in early June and by that time Ahly could already be ahead of their arch rivals.
Perhaps the thought of being leapfrogged by the Red Devils is another reason that led Mansour to cut his players wages.
Zamalek and Ahly are bitter rivals and Mansour despises being beaten by Pitso Mosimane’s team.
Three weeks ago Mansour was sentenced to two years in prison for defamatory remarks about Al Ahly in 2021.
Red Devils chairman Mahmoud El-Khatib had filed two defamation cases against Mansour for his comments.
The two have had a tense relationship in the past with both clubs filing lawsuits to claim the African Club of the Century title two years ago.
El-Khatib had previously claimed that Mansour was taking advantage of his parliamentary immunity, which was misused by Zamalek’s president.
However, Mansour lost the Parliamentary elections in late 2020 meaning his immunity had been lifted starting January last year.
Image source: @SadaElBalad
