Fans chanted “Pusic out” at half-time inside SHG Arena in Riyadh on 30 October, with Al-Ahli 3-1 down to Al-Shabab and on the way to the heaviest defeat in their Roshn Saudi League history. Ten days on, the head coach is still in the job. The reason is not sporting.
Terminating Pusic’s contract would cost Al-Ahli close to 50 million riyals, around £10m, legal adviser Ahmed Al-Sheikhi told Saudi programme Nadina, as reported by AfricaSoccer. The two-year deal the Dutchman signed in August contains no reduced penalty clause for an early exit, leaving the board exposed if they want to move him on.
On the same programme, the appointment itself was described as “the disaster of the season”.
That bill is only half the problem. Sacking Pusic in the winter window could drag Al-Ahli into the same strict financial monitoring regime that limited Al-Nassr to a single summer signing, Saudi journalist Abdulrahman Al-Thunayan told the same Nadina programme on MBC 1. Cristiano Ronaldo’s club only cleared their restrictions in time to sign Portuguese forward Samu Costa from Real Mallorca.
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From Asia’s champions to the season’s disaster
Pusic took over in August, replacing Matthias Jaissle after the German moved to Newcastle United in a deal that cost the Premier League club in excess of £9m. Jaissle had been crowned AFC Champions League Elite champion twice with Al-Ahli, and his successor inherited a squad built to repeat the trick.
Twelve rounds in, that project is in pieces. The 6-1 at SHG Arena surpassed Al-Ahli’s previous worst in the division, a 6-2 defeat to Al-Ettifaq in the sixth round of the 2018-19 season. Yannick Carrasco scored a hat-trick for Al-Shabab, Brazilian striker Ricardo Matias added two and Roger Martinez one; Firas Al-Buraikan pulled a goal back in the 40th minute. Goalkeeper Abdulrahman Al-Sanbi had already been sent off in the 22nd minute for handling the ball outside his area.
An empty boardroom too
The coaching bind sits on top of a leadership vacuum. Former president Khaled Al-Ghamdi stepped down in the summer to run for the Saudi Arabian Football Federation presidency, with vice-president Ahmed Al-Shinqiti filling in. The same window saw Riyad Mahrez and Franck Kessié depart, stripping the dressing room of senior voices.
Al-Sheikhi said the club could still appoint a new coach before any final settlement with Pusic is reached, and that FIFA would only become involved if the Dutchman rejects whatever terms Al-Ahli put to him. Manager contract disputes, he added, do not carry sporting sanctions.
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Al-Ahli’s next Roshn Saudi League match is at home to Al-Faisaly on 20 November.
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