Al-Ahli faces legal risk over Marino Pusic’s contract

A legal issue threatens to complicate Al-Ahli’s situation with Marino Pusic, whose appointment has been described as the “disaster of the season”. Legal adviser Ahmed Al-Sheikhi has outlined the risks surrounding the coach’s contract and a possible termination, as the club’s management may wish to end their relationship.

Speaking on the “Nadina” programme, Al-Sheikhi said Pusic’s agreement had been signed for two mandatory years. It includes substantial sums, among them wages and guaranteed contractual advances, but no clear mechanism for the club to exit the deal early. In his view, that lack of an exit route poses a legal risk for the management.

Terminating the contract could cost Al-Ahli close to 50 million riyals, the adviser also said, because there is no reduced penalty clause that would have allowed the club to end the agreement by paying three or six months of wages. Settling the outstanding amounts is therefore one of the management’s main challenges. The desire to move on from Pusic and find a replacement is colliding with a potentially heavy bill, making the issue both legal and financial.

The situation follows a coaching change at the start of the current season: Pusic was brought in to replace German coach Matthias Jaissle, whose departure was decided suddenly. Pusic’s appointment has been labelled the “disaster of the season”, a phrase that conveys the severity of the judgment being made about that decision.

Al-Sheikhi nevertheless believes Al-Ahli can appoint a new coach and put him in charge of the team before reaching a final settlement with Pusic. In his view, the financial and legal difficulty tied to the contract would not prevent the club from taking that step.

If Pusic refuses a settlement, the club could leave the matter to FIFA, the adviser added. He said disputes involving coaches’ contracts do not lead to sporting sanctions such as a registration ban, leaving Al-Ahli room to act while the case is handled. Al-Sheikhi also dismissed the prospect of active financial monitoring of the club, describing it as one of the major clubs that spends the least and saying it is expected to have a surplus from the support it receives.