CAF Disciplinary Committee v. Yasser Ibrahim

Al Ahly lost the first leg of its 2025/26 Champions League quarter-final against Espérance Sportive de Tunis 1-0 at Stade Hammadi Agrebi in Radès, Espérance's goal coming from a penalty. As players left the pitch after the final whistle, video footage circulating widely on social media showed Al Ahly centre-back Yasser Ibrahim making a hand gesture across his throat while looking toward the section of the stadium holding Espérance supporters, widely interpreted by fans and reporters as a provocative, throat-slitting gesture directed at the crowd.

CAF opened an investigation into the incident, and its Disciplinary Committee subsequently found Ibrahim had committed an act deemed unsporting toward supporters in the stands during the match — though CAF's own published ruling did not officially expand on or confirm the specific gesture reported in the media. He was suspended for two matches, with one match served immediately — ruling him out of Al Ahly's first continental fixture the following season — and the second suspended for a probationary period of one year, to take effect only if he commits a similar offence within that window.

The sanction was announced just days before Ibrahim was due to represent Egypt at the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North America, adding an unusual timing dimension to an otherwise standard club-competition disciplinary matter, though the suspension itself applies only to CAF club competitions and does not affect his international eligibility.

Al Ahly was eliminated from the Champions League at the quarter-final stage, losing both legs of the tie to Espérance, with the second leg in Cairo played behind closed doors under a separate, unrelated supporter-ban sanction arising from an earlier incident against AS FAR in which objects were thrown from the stands — a sanction Al Ahly separately protested to CAF, without success, in the days before that second leg. Espérance advanced to the semi-finals, where they lost to Mamelodi Sundowns, who went on to beat AS FAR in the final to win the title.