Ahmed Abdel-Zaher
Egypt’s
Al-Ahly football club on Tuesday suspended forward Ahmed Abdel Zaher
from next month’s FIFA Club World Cup for celebrating a goal with a
salute in support of Islamists.
Al-Ahly said they would also sell the
28-year-old at the end of the season and deprive him of prize money from
the Cairo club’s victory Sunday in the final of the African Champions
League.
Abdel Zaher held up four fingers when he scored Al-Ahly’s second goal in the 4-0 win over South Africa’s Orlando Pirates.
The four-finger salute has been adopted
by supporters of deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, who the army
overthrew on July 3.
The player has apologised to fans for
the political stunt, and said in a statement that he would be willing to
accept whatever punishment the club metes out.
Al-Ahly’s football committee had on
Monday recommended Abdel Zaher be suspended from the FIFA Club World Cup
in Morocco, following uproar in the media.
Egypt remains deeply polarised between Morsi’s supporters and the military-installed government four months after his ouster.
More than 1,000 people, mostly
Islamists, have died in clashes since, many of them killed when police
dispersed a protest camp in Cairo’s Rabaa al-Adawiya square.
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