Egyptian football team suspends player after anti-Sisi comments

Wadi Degla has suspended midfielder Ahmad al-Marghani after he posted critical comments on Facebook about his country's president.
2 min read
03 July, 2015
Marghani used to play for current league champions Zamalek [Facebook]
An Egyptian Premier League football team has suspended one of its top players for the rest of the season after he posted comments online critical of the country's president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Wadi Degla kept Ahmad al-Marghani on the bench from Thursday's Cairo derby with al-Ahly - days after he used Facebook to criticise the president's handling of the recent militant attacks in Sinai.

The club later decided to suspend Margahani for the season for his comments.

Marghani posted: "You told the people come out and let me to fight terrorism. The people filled the streets even though [fighting terrorism] should've been your job in the first place.

"Ever since then everyone is dying civilians, soldiers and policemen and where are you? All we ever get from you is words."

He called Sisi a "failure" and held him responsible for the killed servicemen in Sinai, "Is a state of mourning not going to be declared for them and the television soaps cancelled? Or are they not as important as the state prosecutor?"

A team representative called to a popular talk show and said: "We've suspended him for the rest of the season, everything he's said is unacceptable on the national level.

"He can say what he wants when he's with his mates at a cafe but not on social media when he is representing the team."