Egypt?s and Swiss Sion goalie Essam el-Hadari in action.

The Egyptian Football Association (EFA) is accused of being powerless in the face of acts of piracy allegedly being committed by top clubs in the country's Premier League.

The association is said to have plunged into a state of helplessness after it could not intervene firmly to stop the major clubs from hijacking their rivals' players by offering them mouth-watering salaries. The prime suspects behind these acts of piracy in the local football community are the red-shirted, Al-Ahly, their arch-rival the white-shirted Zamalek and the orange-shirted Ismaili. The chaotic situation erupted after Al-Ahly, Egypt's most popular team sign, embarked on a fierce attempt to Ismaili's defender, Hani Saeed hours after the player had signed for Zamalek. The EFA's chairman and board members were pelted by stones when they ruled that Al-Ahly had no right to have the defender in their line-up. EFA also decreed that the player should be suspended for six months and pay LE250,000 ($47,000) fine. The six-month suspension was, nonetheless, revoked immediately to give the player the opportunity to play for the country's national squad in its forthcoming African tournaments. The association's ad hoc committee also ordered the defender to sign a three-year contract with Zamalek. EFA was accused of ignoring the player's appeal that he would love to play for the red-shirts. Saeed also claimed that Zamalek's officials were dishonest as they cheated him into signing documents against his consent. The outrage of Al-Ahly's officials increased after the EFA refused to give Ismaili's midfielder Hosni Abd Rabou the go-ahead to play for Al-Ahly locally and in African football contests. The wrangle between Al-Ahly and EFA began after Abd Rabou prematurely severed his contract with the French team, Strasburg, and returned to his former club, Ismaili. Informed of the midfielder's return, Al-Ahly, which had earlier made several attempts to sign him, scrambled frantically to persuade the player to do so. However, Ismaili decided to sell the player to an Arab Gulf club for two million euros. Refusing to give in, Al-Ahly's officials are vowing to go the extra mile to restore Abd Rabou. Their determination was reinforced after they failed to buy Ismaili's defender. However, Al-Ahly may silence its guns in this respect after the world governing soccer body FIFA issued a decision to support Ismaili's bid to sell the player to the highest bidder. Al-Ahly feel they have been humiliated after EFA refused to recognise their right to sign Hani Saeed and Hosni Abd Rabou. Millions of Al-Ahly's supporters are now harbouring suspicions that their team is undergoing a bone-crushing war led by EFA and its technical manager Hassan Shehata. The agitated supporters insisted that EFA shot the first salvo in this war when they refused to support Al-Ahly's attempts to restore their fugitive goalkeeper Essam el-Hadari, the best goalkeeper in Africa, who fled the country to play for a Swiss club without serving a notice to the club's officials. Sources in Al-Ahly confirmed that the club's board had refused to give in. It is said that Al-Ahly's officials are planning their next move, which is likely to be powerful. But no-one wanted to elaborate.