Zamalek complete Salah El-Din Mosaddek payments dispute as registration ban looms

Zamalek treasurer Hossam El-Mandouh says the Egyptian club has fully settled its financial dispute with former player Salah El-Din Mosaddek, a development the club hopes will help it reopen its transfer registration ahead of the winter window.

El-Mandouh confirmed that Zamalek had signed the final instalment of an agreement with the Moroccan defender on Tuesday, bringing the case to an end after FIFA had ruled in the player’s favour.

“The Salah Mosaddek crisis has ended completely, and we have very high hopes of opening registration during the winter transfer window, after we signed the final instalment of the settlement yesterday and closed this file completely,” El-Mandouh said on Zamalek’s radio station, Voice of Zamalek.

FIFA had ordered Zamalek to pay Mosaddek $909,000 and imposed a disciplinary sanction that prevents the club from registering players for two registration periods.

Zamalek is now hoping that the registration ban can be reduced from two windows to one. However, the club’s current position is that one of the three registration-ban cases still affecting it is a disciplinary case that cannot be lifted even after payment has been made. That case is the dispute involving Mosaddek.

The club’s latest announcement comes as Zamalek continues preparations for the 2026-27 season. The Cairo side is scheduled to compete in the Egyptian Premier League, the CAF Champions League, the Egypt Cup and the Egyptian Super Cup.

Zamalek had previously announced that it had resolved all of the cases connected with its African club licence. FIFA subsequently confirmed that those matters had been settled.

The number of cases resulting in a registration ban against Zamalek has now fallen to three. One of those cases is the disciplinary sanction related to Mosaddek, which the club says cannot be removed solely through payment, while it seeks a reduction in the length of the ban.

Mosaddek joined Zamalek from Moroccan club Renaissance Zemamra during the 2025 winter transfer window. However, Renaissance Zemamra did not receive the $250,000 transfer fee agreed for the move.

The player later terminated his contract with Zamalek and moved to fellow Moroccan club Wydad in January of this year.

The settlement with Mosaddek is therefore a significant step in Zamalek’s efforts to clear its outstanding disputes, although the club’s participation in the winter transfer market will still depend on the status of the remaining registration restrictions and whether the disciplinary punishment is reduced.