TonyStarks said:
I dont see whats wrong with signing new players for this tournament. Ittihad Djeddah are not sure assured of reaching it again and its a good chance to establish their presence and reputation on a world scale. While I'd rather see local Saudi players being showcased, I cannot blame Ittihad Djeddah for wanting to re-inforce their team with some Brazilian players. In the end, people will remember the team name and not the player faces (or names).
There is a problem with signing new players. As far as I know, the 3 players were signed after Nov. 11th, the deadline to send the WCC squad list to FIFA.
But thats besides the point, I was only asking because I heard that the Saudi FA accepted to register the players only on a condition that they dont participate in local competitions. That is, because Ittihad now have 6 foreigners instead of the max allowed 3 for all other Saudi teams.
I personally wouldn't want Ahly to do this, because by the same token Ahly could have temporarily signed Zidan, Hosny Abd Rabo, and Ahmed Hassan for this match.. But are those really Ahly players? I would have wanted to see a 100% Ahly vs 100% Ittihad team, and may the best team win.
As for bribing and not bribing referees in 1999, thats something no one can verify and no one can make a claim about.. I personally haven't heard of him being banned. I think the 3 red cards were extremely harsh, but some refs are just plain stupid you never know. The only fishy thing about this specific match was that the Egyptian delegation received the match sheet with empty referee names before the match (for some reason, the referees weren't known at the time), which shouldn't have happened in an official competition like this.
. 3 Brazilian players arrived in Jeddah this evening. Some reward to the likes of Adnan Fallatah and Manaf Abushgeir. That's the thanks they get for their heroic performances. Replaced by a bunch of journeymen. 
