JEDDAH, 30 December 2007 — Former champions of the Saudi League and Asian Water Polo Championship Al-Ittihad, having reached the finals of the 10th Arab Water Polo Championship in Egypt on Friday, refused to continue playing against Al-Ahli of Egypt after several unfair judgments made by an Egyptian referee.
Ittihad flew back home yesterday.
Ittihad’s attitude caused the team to miss out on winning the cup or even coming second in the four-day tournament, which started on Dec. 17.
Hence, Al-Ahli was announced winners, with Al-Qadisiya of Kuwait coming second instead of third, and Al-Ahli of Saudi Arabia adjudged third instead of fourth.
According to tournament rules, all games must have two referees — one from each of the two competing teams. After persistent unfair decisions by Egyptian referee Hatem Abdulaziz, Saudi referee Sultan Al-Khalidi decided to quit in protest saying the rulings were unfavorable to the Saudi side.
Championship rules state that the president of the Referees Committee has to take the place of a referee after one leaves a game. This did not happen, as there was no other Saudi referee, while Kuwaiti referee refused to participate. This finally resulted in the appointment of another Egyptian referee to conduct the match. “This was unacceptable,” said Al-Khalidi. “I chose to leave because we’re supposed to ensure the match is played according to rules and regulations. The Egyptian referee was not doing fairly well that and assigned another Egyptian referee instead of the Referee Committee president,” he added.
Ittihad team manager Majid Al-Malki told Arab News the game was supposed to be postponed since the Saudi team had not withdrawn. “However, the Egyptians considered Ittihad out of the game and announced themselves winners,” said Al-Malki. “This did not put our youths’ spirit down, because they were doing well and everybody agreed on that, especially in this event. This on its own is a success and hopefully luck will be on their side afterward and the Referee Committee would run our games in a more cooperative way,” Al-Malki added. Ali Al-Shahrani, representative of the Saudi Youth Welfare, put the blame on the Arab Swimming Federation and its Qatari president, Yousif Al-Saai. Al-Shahrani said he had warned the federation about having the finals officiated by referees from the competing teams and urged them to bring impartial referees to prevent such mistakes from happening in future. Abdullah Al-Tayyar, president of the Al-Ittihad, said he would lodge a complaint against the Referee Committee to the Arab Swimming Federation. A detailed report will also be sent to Prince Sultan ibn Fahd, president of the Saudi Youth Welfare.
On Thursday, Ittihad of Saudi Arabia reached the closing game after beating Al-Qadisiya of Kuwait 9-7 in the semifinal. The team had also earlier won Al-Ein of the UAE 26-2 in their last group match on Dec. 17.
