North African giants have in a bid to improve the quality of their local goalkeepers limited the importation of foreign players into their domestic leagues.
The Egyptian Football Association has maintained the ban on signing foreign goalkeepers across their home leagues in the country.
The ban was put in place a decade ago due to an apparent goalkeeper crisis in the country, after the then-Egypt coach Hassan Shehata bemoaned the dearth of quality shot-stoppers to replace the legendary Essam El Hadary.
At the time, the move prevented existing foreign goalkeepers across Egypt’s domestic leagues from extending their contracts with the club.
The Egyptian FA in a statement recently released, disclosed the agreement to uphold the ban was reached after recommendations from clubs and the public.
The statement read: “The Federation decided to continue not to allow foreign goalkeepers in any club in any of the different departments,” a statement from the EFA read.
“As for the registration procedures and instructions for the new season, the Egyptian Football Association decided that each team will be able to register 30 players in all divisions.
According to the statement, top-flight clubs have also been ordered to register a maximum of five foreign players for the 2020-21 season.
“In the Premier League — the first division league — every club will be allowed to register up to five foreign players, while Palestinian players would be treated as Egyptians with a maximum of only one Palestinian player for every club.”
Al Ahly shot-stopper Mohamed El Shenawy is currently the Pharaohs first-choice goalkeeper, and he recently helped the Red Devils reach the Fifa World Cup final in Qatar where ousted 2 – 0 by Bayern Munich.
