Egyptian Premier League: Why no elite referee was chosen for Zamalek v Al Ahly

Slovenian referee Rade Obrenovic will take charge of Sunday’s Egyptian Premier League match between Zamalek and Al Ahly after officials from several leading European leagues were unavailable or deemed unsuitable.

The Egyptian Football Association appointed a Slovenian refereeing team, led by Obrenovic, for the latest Cairo derby.

Essam Abdel Fattah, head of the referees’ committee, defended the decision and said Slovenia had a strong reputation in international officiating.

“Slovenia is a major refereeing nation,” Abdel Fattah told ON E. “The referee for the 2026 World Cup final was Slovenia’s Slavko Vincic, who retired after the match.”

He added that Obrenovic had become Slovenia’s leading referee and had officiated France’s match against Belgium in the Nations League only a few days earlier.

Abdel Fattah also rejected suggestions that Obrenovic issued an unusually high number of disciplinary sanctions.

“The referee’s average is four yellow cards per match, which is completely normal, contrary to what has been reported,” he said.

Why referees from Europe’s leading leagues were unavailable

Abdel Fattah said the committee had approached the five major European leagues about supplying officials for the fixture.

“We contacted the five major leagues to select a refereeing team for the derby,” he said. “Germany, Italy and England formally apologised, while Spain and Portugal nominated referees who were not from their elite groups. That was why we did not choose them.”

He said the timing of the match had also created difficulties because of European club commitments.

“Ninety per cent of the European referees who have officiated at World Cup matches apologised because they were committed to Champions League matches during the same week as the derby.”

The committee also considered Dutch referee Danny Makkelie, but Abdel Fattah said previous decisions made by him in an Egyptian match had led to objections.

“I contacted the Dutchman Danny Makkelie and was surprised to learn there had been objections to some of his decisions when he previously refereed a match in Egypt,” he said.

Poland’s Szymon Marciniak was also approached, but he was already scheduled to officiate another match at the same time.

“I had hoped the referee for the derby would be one of the world’s elite officials, but that did not happen,” Abdel Fattah said.

France was excluded from the nominations because of the reaction to refereeing decisions made against Egypt at the World Cup.

“We ruled out France because of what happened against the Egypt national team at the World Cup,” he said. “It would have been difficult for Egyptian supporters to accept the decisions of a French refereeing team.”

The Slovenian officials will receive between $18,000 and $20,000 for the match, excluding travel and accommodation expenses.

Abdel Fattah said no country had yet been selected to provide the referee for Al Ahly’s match against Pyramids. He added that the officials would be announced early because the committee had “nothing to fear”, and said the level of payment would make the appointment attractive to referees.