August 28 – Revered by Egyptian fans, Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah has revived a dispute with his native country’s FA, accusing them of ignoring complaints over an image rights issue.
Salah first raised the issue in April when his image was used on the outside of the national team’s plane – provided by official team sponsor WE in direct conflict to Salah’s own sponsorship deal with rival company Vodafone.
The dispute escalated into a full-blown altercation between Salah, who almost single-handedly led Egypt to the World Cup finals enhancing his cult status at home, and his federation. Salah’s camp argued that the Egyptian FA and agency Presentation, a major player in the Egyptian sports landscape, didn’t have the right to use Salah’s image without the consent from MS Commercial, Cayman, the firm that owns Salah’s image rights.
Salah described the use of his image as a “major insult” on Twitter, and took to social media once more over the weekend to claim his protests have been ignored
He tweeted on Sunday: “It is not natural that my letters and my lawyer’s letters are ignored… I don’t know why this is all [happening]. It is natural for any football association to try to solve the problems of its players… but really what I see is exactly the opposite.”
The EFA said in a statement it would address a letter sent by Salah’s agent, Ramy Abbas, today.
Abbas also wrote on Twitter: “We asked for guarantees regarding Mohamed’s wellbeing whilst with the national team, and assurances that the image rights violations wouldn’t happen again. That’s all. They have yet to respond.”
Salah, who won a host of awards after a successful first season with Liverpool in which he scored a record 32 Premier League goals, was Egypt’s main hope heading into the World Cup. But a shoulder injury suffered in the Champions League final affected the side as they crashed out in the group stages.
The Egyptian FA has denied suggestions that Salah has refused to play against Niger next month because of the row. To make matters worse they are bottom of Group J in qualifying for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, following a 1-0 defeat in Tunisia in their opening match.
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