Gamal Al-Ghandour, the Vice-Chairman of the Referees Committee of the Egyptian Football Association, clarified a number of controversial issues in the football arena, especially regarding the reasons for accepting the position and the referee Mahmoud Wafa’s handling of Al-Ahly matches.
The Board of Directors of the Egyptian Football Association recently approved the creation of a Chief Referee Committee headed by Essam Abdel Fattah.
The members of the refereeing committee included Jamal Al-Ghandour as the vice-chairman of the committee, Samir Othman as the vice-chairman of the committee, and Wajih Ahmed and Mahmoud Ashour as members.
Gamal Al-Ghandour’s assessment of refereeing in the league
Jamal Al-Ghandour said: “I am satisfied with the arbitration performance after 3 rounds and to claim a radical improvement is difficult from a practical point of view. We do not have a magic wand and we need more time.”
Speaking on MBC Misr 2, he added: “There were some mistakes in the new season, which is normal because we are at the beginning and the referees need to work harder and improve on a technical and moral level.”
He continued: “There are positives and negatives in terms of arbitration and the case does not require the destruction of the temple and the complete end of the case. There are still some positive points that can be relied upon.”
The secret of getting the position of vice-chairman of the referee committee
Al-Ghandour explained in this regard: “I have built a great name and history in the field of arbitration during my career and for that reason I felt insulted by the position of foreign experts while we were there.”
He continued: “The Football Association has repeatedly relied on foreign experts to lead the refereeing committee, despite the failure of this experiment and the availability of Egyptian personnel who can effectively manage this file.”
He continued: “A number of names were put forward, such as Essam Abdel Fattah and Samir Osmani, and finally Abdel Fattah took the position. When I was offered the position, I looked at nothing and got the experience.”
The Vice-Chairman of the Referee Committee noted: “The idea of creating the committee did not come from Essam Abdel Fattah, because the focus was on the creation of the Arbitration Department and each member responsible for the case, and I took responsibility for the development.”
An analysis of the Premier League’s mistakes and the Benchark incident
Al-Gando emphasized that: “The refereeing committee’s analysis of refereeing errors reflects a collective action mechanism and we want to get the majority opinion on the cases that lead to controversy on the stage.”
He continued: “In my experience, being the oldest and taking into account the culture of the community, the recognition of mistakes that may occur during matches has been coordinated among the members of the refereeing committee.”
He added: “In the last three rounds of the league, the referees have not used video technology (VAR) for an interesting controversial situation, except for Al-Ahli’s penalty in the first round against Sharqiya Enpi, and we had to explain this to the audience.”
Will Wafa lead Al-Ahly games?
In another context, Al-Ghandour commented that Mahmoud Wafa could referee matches for Al-Ahli Club because he is an international referee and is available at the right time and circumstances, adding: “We don’t want to run out of referees, or rely on the same referees over and over again, but the referee should be there and not put the referee in the right conditions. It could cause danger.”
The Vice-Chairman of the Referees Committee concluded: “In the first round of the league we relied on referee Amin Omar against Zamalek and he took the stand as usual after he left a good reputation in Egyptian refereeing for the 2026 World Cup.”
