Now we’re talking – the tip of the iceberg on Ahly’s corruption.
The allegations of corruption wracking Egyptian soccer are particularly painful for Al-Ahly SC… [t]he club chairman Hassan Hamdy is suspected of corrupt practices in cohorts with Yasser Mansour, one of Egypt’s wealthiest businessmen, whose financial largesse is believed to have attracted players to the team. Mansour is being investigated by prosecutors for allegedly having benefited from close ties to the Mubarak regime. At one point, Yasser’s brother Mohammed served as Mubarak’s transport minister. The brothers also have family ties to former tourism minister Zuheir Garana and former housing minister Ahmed Maghrabi, both of whom have been arrested on charges of corruption. Al-Ahly’s predicament is reinforced by the fact that Hamdy doubled as the head of the government-owned Al-Ahram advertising department, which allowed him to funnel lucrative advertising and sponsorship opportunities to his team. One such contract is Vodafone’s two-year, $10 million sponsorship of Al-Ahly.
You can run, but you cannot hide. The league will restart at some point, and Ahly will find itself challenging for relegation spots in the brave new world of playing on a level field.
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