Mortada Mansour assures not playing in Qatar

Zamalek president Mortada Mansour has revealed that he has informed the African Football Confederation (CAF) that he'll refuse to play the African Super Cup in Qatar.

Zamalek will not play the CAF Super Cup clash against Esperence of Tunisia in Qatar, the club President, Mortada Mansour, states on Saturday.

“We will not play in Qatar whatever the consequences. I said before we will not play in Qatar even when the handball team reached the Club World Cup and was scheduled in Qatar, we withdrew.” Mansour said.

Zamalek reached CAF Super Cup after they defeated Morocco’s RS Berkane on penalties to win CAF Confederation Cup title.

Mansour added “I don’t mind playing the Super Cup in Tunisia but we will not play in Qatar even if we will be relegated to the third division.”
Esperence aim to achieve the title after losing last season’s title 2-1 to Raja Casablanca.

CAF signed an agreement with Qatar to host the Super Cup game for three years, starting from last season.

On June 5, 2017, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Bahrain decided to cut diplomatic ties with Qatar, after years of unstable relations, and implicit attacks on Qatar. Qatar was accused by the quartet of funding and promoting terrorism and intervening in the domestic affairs of the quartet countries.

The president of Zamalek announced his rejection of the proposals to hold the match against Al Ahly on October 28. EFA has postponed the game which was scheduled on Saturday, 19 October, due to security concerns.