Al-Badri, whose family lives in Canada, has been given a two-week leave and will accordingly miss a couple of league games during the month of April.

After meeting with his Ahli employers, Al-Badri vehemently denied that his temporary leave is the beginning of his end with the club.

Important news

“When I told reporters at the training ground that I have important news to announce, they thought I was talking about quitting but the truth is I wanted to say I’ll be away for two weeks,” Al-Badri told Ahli website.

“There is no problem whatsoever with the board and there is no way I would leave Ahli in such a disrespectable manner. I’m not even thinking about leaving.

“It is completely false that I want to leave because the board had rejected some of my requests. We had a meeting and we just spoke about how long I’ll be away for personal reasons.”

Assistant manager Mohamed Youssef will be in charge of Ahli during the head coach’s absence.