AFP Ahmad Salah
Jul 29, 2026 04:56+08:00
Translated by
Announcement, deletion, then official confirmation: Zamalek ends John Edward's journey in a chaotic scene
Zamalek SC | Premier League | CAF Champions League | Egypt
Confusion and Labib's board are inseparable! Zamalek threw their supporters into confusion for several minutes on Tuesday evening. The club's official "Zamalkawy" app announced the end of sporting director John Edward's relationship with the club, only for the news and its notification to vanish shortly afterwards. No official clarification followed. The app had reported John Edward's resignation from his post, and users received a notification carrying the same message. Then the story disappeared. That reversal sparked widespread questions among supporters over the true state of the sporting director's future.
Official announcement: John Edward departs
The news vanished from the app, but the official page's post on Facebook stayed put under the headline "John Edward's journey with Zamalek comes to an end". That only deepened the confusion over the decision: had it been reversed, or published before its official procedures were complete? Minutes later, the "Zamalkawy" app returned to confirm the news once more. It published a report under the same headline, "John Edward's journey with Zamalek comes to an end", stating that the sporting director had ended his time with the club after a season in which the team were crowned Egyptian Premier League champions. Zamalek are now preparing for the new campaign and a return to the CAF Champions League, having obtained the African licence and settled a number of pending cases. Neither Zamalek's board of directors, chaired by Hussein Labib, nor any of the club's platform officials issued a statement explaining why the news was deleted the first time, or why its definitive confirmation was delayed. All of this unfolds amid an escalating crisis between the club president and the sporting director. Press sources revealed that a meeting lasting around five hours between the pair ended without agreement on the football team's main files, most notably the identity of the new head coach. John Edward insisted on completing the signing of Serbian coach Vuk Rasovic. Labib had his reservations about the deal, favouring the retention of Moatamed Gamal in the technical role owing to doubts over the Serbian coach's CV and the high cost of signing him.
Advertisement
Disputes in all directions: a season on the line
The disputes between the two sides also extended to the matter of establishing the football company. The club president rejected pressure to pass proposals granting investors larger shares, insisting that the board of directors retain the largest stake in the company. These administrative disputes coincided with a mounting financial crisis at the club. Successive Egyptian reports stated that John Edward had informed Hussein Labib of the possibility that the team could face a major crisis during the new season due to a shortage of the liquidity needed to pay the dues of the players, the technical staff and the new coach. He also warned against a repeat of scenarios of instability and contract terminations, giving the board of directors a two-week deadline to resolve the financial crisis. Piled on top of one another, these technical and financial disputes give the incident of publishing the departure news, then deleting it, then reinstating it, a wider context than a mere passing "technical error". They make it closer to a reflection of a deeper state of administrative confusion that the White Castle has endured for years, while the future of the club and the football team remains surrounded by doubts.
ENJOYED THIS STORY? Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting Add as preferred source on Google