After the Clasico: Sandi’s Quiet Reassembly and the Referee Rumble
25 October 2025
Clasico Fallout and the Boss’s Message
Fahd Sandi, president of Al-Ittihad, addressed the club’s fans after a 2-0 loss to Al Hilal in the Saudi Clasico on Friday evening at the Enmaa Stadium in Jeddah.
Al Hilal sealed the derby with two goals, leaving the home side looking for answers as the Saudi Pro League schedule pushes forward.
Sandi, posting on X, said the technical level is still on an upward trajectory and stressed the importance of maintaining a winning mindset and consistency, even though yesterday’s refereeing calls were significant.
He urged fans to back the team, warning against self-blame or conspiracy theories, and noted that the club is working to restore balance after a start that was less than perfect.
Shortly after the defeat, Sandi paused his personal account before reopening it amid a wave of reactions from supporters.
In the standings, the capital club rose to third with 14 points, still unbeaten in four wins and two draws; Al-Ittihad dropped to seventh with 10 points after a mixed start featuring three victories, one draw, and two defeats.
Cup Clash on the Horizon
Looking ahead, Al-Ittihad will face Al Nassr in the King’s Cup in the coming days. The Saudi press indicated Sergio Conceicao plans to bring back Dutch winger Steven Bergwijn and Serbian goalkeeper Predrag Rajkovic to the squad for the match against the league leaders.
Conceicao had left the pair out of the Clasico for technical reasons, aiming to lean on Albanian Mario Metai and Malian Mamadou Doumbia among the eight foreigners allowed in the league.
Additionally, the Portuguese coach declined to grant a break after the Clasico, arranging recovery sessions for the starters and tactical work for others, as the team prepares for Tuesday’s King Cup showdown at Al Nassr’s home ground.
The team progressed to the King Cup Round of 16 by beating Al Wahda 1-0, while in the league, Al-Ittihad’s form remains a concern going into a decisive run of fixtures.
A Look Back at Conceicao’s Start and a Handshake Tale
There was also a thematic look at coaching history: Conceicao’s path has shown a pattern of strong starts and occasional early bumps, a trend that fans hope will hold true in the current campaign despite Friday’s setback.
The Portuguese tactician, aged 50, has not seen a defeat after three matches in more than a decade—an expectation that makes Friday’s result sting all the more. His Porto beginnings featured five straight wins before a European setback, while Milan and other stops offered similarly uneven starts before turning the corner.
On the sidelines, Conceicao explained why there was no handshake with Inter’s Simone Inzaghi after the game, saying, “We’re the home team, and there are no hard feelings.” He added that results in recent meetings had favored his side, but the narrative will shift again once the next matches arrive. “We’ve missed the finishing touch in several attacks and the intensity at key moments,” he said, underscoring a learning-from-mistakes mindset as the squad aims to rebound.
Two punchlines to brighten the tactical gloom: If football was a courtroom, referees would be the only witnesses who can’t stop talking about the evidence. And if coaching were stand-up, Conceicao would be selling season tickets for a monologue titled: ‘Offsides and Other Myths.’
