JEDDAH, 21 January 2007 — Although Al-Ahli came first in their final match of the season against Al-Ittihad, who came second followed by Qadisiya who came third, all three teams have voiced their concerns about the performance of the referees in this year’s water polo season. Ahli beat Ittihad 12-11 in the finals, while Ittihad beat Qadisiya 11-7 in the semifinals held at the Green Hall in Dammam on Jan 18. The teams’ managers say they are happy with their players’ performance. The manager of the Ittihad Water Polo team, Majid Al-Malki, said the team played wonderfully and did more than he had expected.
“In 1999 we came third place at the Asian Water Polo Championship and now we look forward to the up and coming championship for clubs in Kuwait in April with Ahli,” he said. Ittihad’s Bander Al-Zahrani won best goalkeeper award, while Ahli’s Yusri Al-Leili won the best player award. However, the teams complained that three major issues ruined the tournament for the teams; unqualified referees, new rules of the game and the lack of attention given to water polo despite its popularity in the past three years.
Water polo fans and administrators complained that the sport is not getting the attention it deserves. Their concerns are particularly highlighted by the fact that the final match was not aired on television.
People did not know about the sport before but awareness has increased with the media covering some matches live on television. The manager of the Ahli water polo team, Majid Ba Muflih, said, “The game needs more coverage and it’s the least thing we could request for on behalf of those players that have worked so hard.”
Ahli and Ittihad players and team managers commented that because the games were held in the Eastern Province — while the teams are based in the western part of Saudi Arabia — very few fans turned up to watch matches.
They also added that the referees needed to be changed. “A water polo referee must play the game first in order for him to know what the rules are. Some of these referees do not know how to swim in the first place,” said one of the water polo team managers.
“This was the finals and we were very enthusiastic about it. The referees’ mistakes upset a lot of the players and made them loose their tempers,” said Ittihad player Adel Al-Malki. “He gave a red card after three minutes to one of our best players Khalid Al-Harbi and then he gave a yellow card to the goalkeeper unfairly,” said Ba Muflih.
The Ittihad team manager shared the same point of view on the referees. “They really need to be changed,” he said.
Tariq Al-Ahmed, the manager of Qadisiya water polo team, said that the referees needed to be changed especially since they were continuously making mistakes and ruining the spirit of the game.
There were other things, he said, that caused tension like a new rule, which the Saudi Swimming Federation did not inform Ahli and Qadisiya. According Al-Ahmed, they were not informed at all, “we just heard from others that this new rule was implemented. When Al-Ahmed questioned the federation, they replied to him that they informed his club by phone. “This is not how things run in here, there must be official letters including the matter from the federation to all clubs as usual,” he said.
The rule stated that foreign players may participate in the finals even if they have not played during the preliminary matches of the league. The previous rule stated that such foreigners needed to play at least 60 percent of the preliminary matches in the league before being able to qualify to play in the finals or the semifinals.
“Teams should be informed at least two months ahead. We don’t spend this huge sum of money on tickets and accommodation for players knowing we could bring a player only for one day instead of the whole season,” said the Qadisiya manager.
He added that the rule would affect players and the way they perform. “They are unsuitable and unbeneficial. We followed the rules but now we were treated unfairly,” he said.
With hopes that changes will happen, Al-Ahmed sent a letter to the water polo president and is sending another one to Prince Sultan ibn Fahd, president of the Saudi Youth Welfare, to revise the changes to the rules.
Ba Muflih added that he has spoken with General Secretary of the Saudi Swimming Federation Ali Al-Oun regarding changing of referees and having foreign ones instead. “He told me our request would be taken into consideration.”
