Latest in long history of Hamdallah controversies could be biggest one yet

There are two guarantees for clubs that sign Abderrazak Hamdallah: The first is goals and the second is controversy. The striker makes headlines for his exploits on the pitch and is often in the news for other reasons off it. It is safe to say that the Moroccan comes with baggage but as he scores so often, it is usually tolerated.

The latest controversy is potentially a big one and involves his former club Al-Nassr and his current team Al-Ittihad. In November, Al-Nassr terminated Hamdallah’s contract, releasing a player who had been with them since August 2018 and scored 112 goals in 108 games for the nine-time Saudi Arabian champions. Given that strike rate, that the club let such a player go shows how badly the relationship had deteriorated. In January, the Moroccan signed for Al-Ittihad on a free transfer. He has since scored 11 goals in 10 games for the leaders as they close in on a first title since 2009.

The issue has cast something of a dark cloud over the relationship between the two clubs, one that may about to get considerably stormy. On Saturday, Al-Nassr issued a statement which said that they had lodged a complaint with the Saudi Arabia Football Federation on March 28.

The claim is that there are recordings of conversations between Hamed Al-Balawi, a senior executive at Al-Ittihad, and Hamdallah while the player was still under contract with Al-Nassr and have urged SAFF to look into what they say are “major violations of regulations and laws which have breached the rules of fairness and competition.”

If the alleged conversations are proven to have taken place, then the story would obviously move to the next level. There have been reports there were a number of conversations between Al-Ittihad and the