The Petroleum side have been ruled out of contention for the title after surprisingly slumping to a defeat on Friday, which prompted head coach Mokhtar Mokhtar to impose sanctions on his players.

Al-Okabi blamed the disappointing loss on the referee, whose decisions in the game were quite controversial.

"The result was by far abnormal, the referee made so many mistakes," he told FilGoal.com.

"He showed our players too many cards for no good reason, and also signaled for an undeserved spot-kick for Mahalla."

Petrojet, who were deemed title contenders early this season, will have to do without a good number of regulars in their upcoming league game against Ittihad on Wednesday.

Ahmed Fawzi, Amr Hassan, Mohamed Samara, Eric Bekoe and Karim Zekri have all been ruled out of the game through suspension.

Ayman Ramadan will also miss the game due to injury.