Mahmoud El Khatib, Al Ahly’s President, expressed his appreciation towards all Egyptian referees, while adding that calling for foreign referees to officiate the Cairo derby on April 18 doesn’t belittle the qualities of the Egyptian referees.

Moreover, El Khatib continued that he told Ahmed Megahed, interim President of the Egyptian Football Association, earlier this week that this is not the best timing to allow Egyptian referees to officiate the Cairo derby.

Therefore, handing the match to foreign referees would be better, as there is still time for the Egyptian Association to contact several European federations in order to have world class referees officiating the game.