Skipper Hesham Noubi, striker Hossam Osama, midfielders Hassan Kondi and Hani Hassan have all joined newly-promoted side MCDR.

The club have earlier sold stars Walid Soliman and Mohamed Shaaban, who represented the Egyptian national team more than once, to ENPPI.

According to widespread reports in local newspapers, the ministry of petroleum opted against keeping hold of Petrojet next season to avoid possible sanctions by world governing body FIFA.

Article 18 of FIFA's regulations states that 'the football association shall ensure that neither a natural or a legal person exercises control over more than one club whenever the integrity of any match or competition could be jeopardized'.

The ministry of petroleum already owns two clubs in the Egyptian Premier League – Petrojet and ENPPI.

Petrojet's ownership will be transferred to Suez governorate while ENPPI will remain under the ministry's authority, the reports added.

Two years ago, several clubs lodged complaints with FIFA to protest against the existence of the so-called petroleum clubs in the first division.