Egypt's Ahly's football player, Ahmed Abdul Zahar shows a four-finger sign, called Rabaa (four) in Arabic, as he celebrates after scoring in Cairo on November 10, 2013 (Photo: AFP)
Egypt's coaching staff would have been hanged if they had selected Ahmed Abdel-Zaher for the Ghana playoff second-leg on Tuesday, assistant coach Diaa El-Sayed has joked.
"If we'd called up Abdel-Zaher, we'd be hanged from Cairo Tower," El-Sayed told an Egyptian television programme on Wednesday. "We lost 6-1 [in the first leg] and you want us to depend on a player who mixed politics with sports?"
The 28-year-old has been suspended by Ahly for 'mixing sports with politics' after celebrating his second goal in the CAF Champions League final on Sunday by making a hand signal in support of hundreds of pro-Mohamed Morsi protesters killed by security forces in Cairo on 14 August.
Under the helm of American manager Bob Bradley, the Pharaohs' dream of qualifying for the world's most prestigious tournament for the first time in 24 years is effectively over after they lost 6-1 in the first leg in Kumasi.
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