Mo Salah clashes with Egyptian team over image rights

Liverpool FC and Egypt footballer Mo Salah has reignited his grievance with the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) over how they exploit his image. Before the World Cup, Salah’s image featured prominently on the national team’s aeroplane promoting the Egyptian team’s official sponsor, mobile internet brand WE, despite Salah having recently entered into a lucrative sponsorship deal with telecoms company Vodafone.

Salah reportedly said he felt “insulted” that his image was used without any contact or prior approval when such a clear commercial conflict was obvious. In a tweet sent on August 26th, Salah accused the EFA of ignoring his complaints, saying that, “It’s normal that a football union seeks to solve the problems of its players and provide support…. It is not normal that my messages and my lawyer’s letters are ignored.”

Ramy Abbas, Salah’s lawyer, also took to Twitter saying, “We asked for guarantees regarding Mohamed’s wellbeing whilst with the national team, and assurances that the image rights violations wouldn’t happen again… They have yet to respond.”

The Sun Newspaper claims to have obtained a two-page response from the EFA which reportedly states that, “Football is a team game… Any player selected to represent his country is treated equally and does not and will not receive special privileges… Your contention that the Association has disrespected Mr Salah is treated with the contempt that it deserves.”

The Premier League star’s involvement in the Africa Cup of Nations with Egypt now looks to be far from certain.

Richard Jones, Operations Manager for ip21 Ltd