FIFA asks Al-Ahly to respond to goalie's plea to play for Swiss club

CAIRO, March 25 (Xinhua) -- The Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) has called on Egypt's Al-Ahly club to respond to its goalkeeper Essam al-Hadari's disputed transfer to the Swiss club of FC Sion.

The world soccer governing body FIFA made its call in a letter sent to the Egyptian Football Federation recently, the Egyptian official MENA news agency reported on Tuesday.

Al-Ahly club said in a statement on Tuesday that FIFA wants to know about the legal and temporary commitments of al-Hadari in the coming stage.

March 27 has been set as the deadline for the Egyptian club to respond to the FIFA request, said the report.

In early March, Al-Ahly decided to suspend al-Hadari for three weeks for his attempt to move to the Swiss FC Sion club without approval of Al-Ahly, with which he still has a contract until 2010.

After failing to transfer to the Swiss club, al-Hadari returned home from Switzerland in late February.

Al-Hadari, dubbed by the Egyptian fans as the "High Dam", was awarded the best goalkeeper of the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations (ACN) in February when Egypt successfully defended its ACN title.