Three games, three wins, 10 goals. Al-Am’ary started their defence of the WBPL league with aplomb. But less than a month into the season, cracks are beginning to appear and they have very little with Al-Am’ary’s performance on the pitch.
Capitano reported this morning that Hisham Al-Zoabi has resigned as manager claiming that he had not been paid in months. To compound the clubs problems, a high profile recruit- Luab Kayal- has opted to void his contract and sign with Ashdod FC of the Israeli topflight.
The main question fans are now asking is whether or no there might be a liquidity problem within the club. Al-Am’ary spared no expense in the offseason bringing in Ahmed Keshkesh, Ismail Amour, Assem Abu Assi, Houssam Wadi (who is stuck in Gaza at the moment), and Hamudi Kayal. With such big name (and costly) talent coming into supplement a championship-winning squad could it be possible that Al-Am’ary be experiencing solvency problems?
We don’t know much about the situation now but I will say this- I don’t think Luab Kayal’s departure has anything to do with money. His first choice was always to remain in Israel in the hopes that he could catch the eye of a scout and move to Europe. He only signed the deal with Al-Am’ary when it looked like no top tier teams were interested in him. The fact that he has two separate identities in the football realm meant that he could always unilaterally end his contract with Al-Am’ary. Moreover, there could have been a clause in his contract that allowed him to leave if he received an offer from abroad (much like how Abdelatif Bahdari left Shabab Al-Khaleel for Hajer).
From a footballing point of view, Kayal faced stiff competition getting into the side. Al-Am’ary is stacked with players that play for Palestine and they’ve all started the season well which has forced Kayal to settle for substitute’s role. It seems that Kayal would have been a better fit in another WBPL club- one that might be a little short in midfield.
Either way, it will be interested to see how the league leaders and defending champions respond to this crisis.
