Marwan ElShorbagy has issued a stinging rebuke on the state of refereeing and rules on the PSA World Tour and called out squash chiefs for not rectifying the “messed up” situation between “bullied” players and officials.
In a near 15-minute interview with Squash TV at the ongoing British Open in Birmingham, ElShorbagy said that refereeing “hadn’t been great in the last few seasons” and admitted that the sport could be in trouble if issues aren’t fixed by the time it makes its Olympic debut at LA 2028.
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“People in charge [Alex Gough and Lee Beachill] can see what is happening and how the atmosphere is so dire at the moment and [are] doing nothing about it.
“The war on referees, I don’t like it and the refs are human at the end of the day.”
ElShorbagy said that he had spoken to PSA’s CEO and COO, asking them who he should speak to regarding referee directives. He added that the issue had worsened since Lee Drew was let go from his WSO head role earlier this year.
“We need to hold the people accountable in charge of refereeing,” said the Englishman.
The Bristol-based player referred to the denouement of the World Championship final between Amina Orfi and Nour ElSherbini as a case in point, notably some decisions which went against the teen in the fifth.
“Those decisions were something I have never seen before,” he said. “If Amina had lost that match it would have been one of the most unfair moments I have seen in my life.”
ElShorbagy admitted that he deserved his own conduct stroke and match against which saw him exit the recent World Championships in Egypt and a sour episode involving the match official.
He said: “People tell me it was one of the worst decisions they have seen.
“In reality players are being targeted a little bit. I don’t know how to play, how to play my shot, how to move, which lines, the rules are being applied to every player differently. There is nothing changing and I feel like we are being bullied.
“It is a messed up situation at the moment. I don’t know how we are going to be at the Olympics like that. I am so sad to see the state of the sport.”
Asked whether players, the PSA and rules officials, should get together to thrash out the increasing problems on tour, ElShorbaby added that the “power is with the players”.