Dutch coach quits Egypt's al-Ahly after receiving 'death threats'
Dutch coach quits Egypt's al-Ahly after receiving 'death threats'
Fans of Egypt's football title holders are furious after crashing out of the African Champions League, leading to Manager Martin Jol to quit his post for 'safety reasons'.
2 min read
Martin Jol helped Al-Ahly to retain their domestic title in June [AFP]
Dutch football coach Martin Jol has resigned from Egypt's al-Ahly after a brief six-month stint over safety fears.
The decision followed the Egyptian footballing giants' failure to reach the semi-finals of the African Champions League - which caused an angry reaction from some al-Ahly fans.
Supporters argued with the former Ajax and Tottenham Hotspur manager last Friday after their 2-2 draw with Zambia's Zesco United. This was followed by death threats against Jol from some Egyptians on social media.
Others took to their keyboards to express solidarity with Jol with the Arabic hashtag "#Support_Martin_Jol" as things turned ugly.
"We love you [Martin Jol] and support your style here in Egypt and keep going and best of luck," twitter user Mrmahmoud Yassin tweeted prior to Jol's redignation.
Echoing the same sentiment, another twitter user urged his fellow fans to remember not to "forget he won the Egyptian Premier League".
Despite this, threats from some Egyptians continued and led to the 60-year-old to announce his resignation. Fans also attempted to attack the team's players during training on Tuesday.
In a statement, the club said that, "Jol has told us he will not be able to complete his contract [which still had a season and a half until completion] for personal reasons".
"We have accepted that and ended the contract with him."
The club added that Jol apologised for failing to take his team's exit from the African Champions League - a competition al-Ahly have won a record eight times.
During his short tenure as al-Ahly manager, Jol assisted in the defence of the club's Egyptian Premier League title in June. This brought the club's total number of domestic league titles to a record number of 38.
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