Ammon News - AMMAN - Friday's Cup Winners’ Cup final between the Wihdat and Faisali clubs has been overshadowed by a confrontation between Wihdat and the Palestine Football Federation after the latter helped three Wihdat players leave the Kingdom against the wishes of club management.

Officials from Wihdat said they were “surprised” to discover that three of its key players, who are Palestinian nationals, left the Kingdom with new passports after the club refused to release the players for a friendly match between Palestine and Mauritania.

Club officials said they denied the request as it “came too late and did not conform to FIFA regulations”.

"The Palestine federation had asked us to release the players - Ahmed Kushkush, Abdul Lateef Bahdarawe and Fahed Attal - for the match on July 27, but we sent them a letter two days later saying it was difficult to be without them due to the club's commitment in the Cup Winners’ Cup match," said Zaid Abu Zaid, Wihdat secretary general.

Wihdat play archrivals Faisali in the final match of the Cup Winners’ Cup on Friday in hopes of clinching a vital victory that could make their fans forget a disappointing season in which they lost the league in the last match when all they needed was a draw to claim the title.

Abu Zaid told The Jordan Times that he was surprised at the manner in which the players were "whisked out of the Kingdom with new passports despite the fact that the club holds their current passports".

"We have been holding the passports of the players in our offices in order to issue them health certificates and visas to Dubai. This is a normal procedure that we follow with all players," he added, stressing that players are not contractually obligated to hand over their passports.

Abu Zaid said Wihdat's management has yet to file a complaint to the Jordan Football Association, preferring to focus instead on the upcoming match.

"We do not want to be distracted or make the players distracted by complaints. We will evaluate the situation and see what to do after the match," he added.

Abu Zaid said the three players were scheduled to return to Jordan late Thursday and could be used as substitutes in the critical match.

Officials from the Palestinian embassy were unavailable for comment.


** By Mohammad Ben Hussein/ Jordan Times