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Zamalek Fire Entire Coaching Staff After Latest Defeat

Football - Lusail Super Cup - Al Hilal v Zamalek - Lusail Stadium, Lusail, Qatar - September 9, 2022 Zamalek coach Jesualdo Ferreira with Ahmed Sayed Zizo. (Reuters)
Football - Lusail Super Cup - Al Hilal v Zamalek - Lusail Stadium, Lusail, Qatar - September 9, 2022 Zamalek coach Jesualdo Ferreira with Ahmed Sayed Zizo. (Reuters)
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Zamalek Fire Entire Coaching Staff After Latest Defeat

Football - Lusail Super Cup - Al Hilal v Zamalek - Lusail Stadium, Lusail, Qatar - September 9, 2022 Zamalek coach Jesualdo Ferreira with Ahmed Sayed Zizo. (Reuters)
Football - Lusail Super Cup - Al Hilal v Zamalek - Lusail Stadium, Lusail, Qatar - September 9, 2022 Zamalek coach Jesualdo Ferreira with Ahmed Sayed Zizo. (Reuters)

Egyptian football champions Zamalek are under pressure to appoint a new coach - and fast - after firing all of their interim coaching staff in the aftermath of their latest defeat.

Zamalek, who two weeks ago sacked Portuguese coach Jesualdo Ferreira for the second time in two months, lost 3-2 against Al-Masry on Tuesday, despite having led by two goals after 21 minutes.

The club remains in fifth place in the league, 11 points behind rivals Al-Ahly, who also have three games in hand.

Zamalek has taken an axe to the side which won the title last year by six points, and has benched four players for the rest of the season in addition to ripping up the coaching leadership team.

"Club President Mortada Mansour and board members decided to kick all coaching staff out of the club. They... will not be allowed to enter again," Zamalek member board Gamal Abdel-Hamid told his club TV channel.

The club did not name the four players who it said would not feature for the rest of the season.

German Heiko Herrlich is favorite to take over the coaching role and could be unveiled as early as later on Wednesday.

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Israeli Soccer Team Prepares for Closed-door Match in Hungary

Clashes erupt in Amsterdam after a soccer match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax near Amsterdam Central station, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 8, 2024, in this still image obtained from a social media video. X/iAnnet/via REUTERS
Clashes erupt in Amsterdam after a soccer match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax near Amsterdam Central station, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 8, 2024, in this still image obtained from a social media video. X/iAnnet/via REUTERS
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Israeli Soccer Team Prepares for Closed-door Match in Hungary

Clashes erupt in Amsterdam after a soccer match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax near Amsterdam Central station, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 8, 2024, in this still image obtained from a social media video. X/iAnnet/via REUTERS
Clashes erupt in Amsterdam after a soccer match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax near Amsterdam Central station, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 8, 2024, in this still image obtained from a social media video. X/iAnnet/via REUTERS

Israel's Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer team returned to Europe on Wednesday for the first time since its fans were assaulted in the Netherlands earlier this month in attacks that were condemned as antisemitic by authorities in Israel and across Europe.
The team will face off Thursday against Türkiye’s Besiktas in an Europa League match that was relocated to Hungary. The contest at Nagyerdei Stadium in the city of Debrecen will be played without fans due to security concerns following the violence in Amsterdam on Nov. 7 that resulted in five people being treated in hospitals and dozens of detentions.

Maccabi Tel Aviv head coach Zarko Lazetic told a news conference on Wednesday that his team was focused on its game, regardless of what tensions may exist elsewhere, The Associated Press reported.
“It’s not a question for me what happened outside of the stadium. We saw some videos and everything, but we really try to focus on football,” he said. “We’ll see tomorrow what is the effect.”
The violence in Amsterdam came after local authorities banned pro-Palestinian demonstrators from gathering outside the stadium where Maccabi was playing Dutch team Ajax.
A large crowd of Israeli fans chanted anti-Arab slogans on their way to the match, video showed. Afterward, youths on scooters and on foot crisscrossed the city in search of Israeli fans, punching and kicking them, according to Amsterdam’s mayor.
The city's police commander said the incidents had “an antisemitic character."
Maccabi press officer Ofer Ronen-Abels said Wednesday the events in Amsterdam “had nothing to do with football."
Before the assaults, Besiktas had requested its home game against Maccabi, originally scheduled for Istanbul, to be moved to “neutral ground” over security concerns.
The club later said on social media that Hungary was the only country willing to host the match and that Hungarian authorities requested it be played behind closed doors.
Hungary has hosted several home games for Israel's national team for security reasons since the war in Gaza began.
Maccabi held its final practice session at the Kiryat Shalom training complex in Tel Aviv on Wednesday before departing for Hungary, the team said on its website.