The Ismaily Club has announced its withdrawal from the Egypt Cup football competition for 2022, just hours after the draw for the Round of 16 was held today, Saturday. The club expressed that the draw was biased in favor of certain teams.
The draw held at the Egyptian Football Association, attended by club representatives, placed Ismaily against Zamalek. In an official statement, Ismaily stated: "The Board of Directors of Ismaily Club, headed by Engineer Yahya El-Komy, rejects what happened in the Round of 16 draw for the Egypt Cup for the 2021-2022 season, as it is directed in favor of certain clubs."
The Ismaily board raised objections due to the way the draw was conducted, claiming that the League Association and the Competitions Committee intentionally arranged the draw to place Ahly and Zamalek, the first and second teams in the Premier League last season, while eight other teams were distributed between the third and eighth positions in the draw.
The League Association and the Competitions Committee dismissed Ismaily's objections during the draw process, arguing that discussions would be postponed until after the draw, but they quickly left without listening to the grievances of club representatives.
Ismaily’s board believes that this draw was not conducted fairly, showing favoritism towards certain clubs at the expense of others, which contradicts the principle of equal opportunities. Therefore, the decision to withdraw from the Egypt Cup was made in protest against what happened, in order to preserve the rights of the historic club and its fans.
On another note, Zamalek officials have expressed reservations about the Egyptian Football Association's decision regarding the conduct of the Egypt Cup draw starting from the Round of 16. An official from Zamalek told "Kora Plus" that the draw lacks transparency, describing its outcome as strange and illogical. The official pointed out that it is unreasonable for most strong teams to be in Zamalek's path in the tournament.
In response, Amer Hussein, a member of the Egyptian Football Association and supervisor of the Competitions Committee, stated: "I do not direct the draw in terms of ease and difficulty; that is not within my jurisdiction." He added in press statements: "Zamalek played against Aswan in the semifinals, and the winner of the Ahly and Pyramids match will face Petrojet in last year's version, following the same procedures and criteria that governed this season's draw."
Hussein further explained, "The draw process was set to place Ahly and Zamalek in different paths until the final match, which has been a practice for many years and also has a marketing aspect to ensure the tournament's success."
He concluded, "The clubs were classified according to their standings in last season’s league, and according to this criterion, the draw was also structured to keep Pyramids and Smouha, who placed third and fourth last season, until the semifinals." Amer Hussein affirmed: "We did not interfere with the results of the draw; the clubs have been categorized based on their league standings, and the procedures were conducted transparently in the presence of all club representatives."
